Ordinarily Extraordinary
by Hannah Tennant-Cumberbatch
Summary: Rose Tyler's best friend Ava had always been prepared for everything. Cracks in time and space? Easy. Way too much running? Of course. Life-threatening situations? Yes. Falling in love with a 900 year old alien? Oh. Not so much... AU s2, Ten/OC, Ten/Rose *ON HIATUS*
1. Enter Ava

**A/N: Ok, I'm totally psyched about this. Seriously.**

**This is an AU rewrite of series 2-6 featuring my OC Ava. This story was supposed to be different, but I changed it because it got complicated. Ava is Rose Tylers best friend, so I'm playing with the idea that Rose wasn't the only companion on the TARDIS... Leading up to series 6 when everything changes. This is going to be a major project for me, so please stick with me!**

**This is going to be a bumpy ride, with a lot of twists and turns. So stick with me and review, because reviews make me work faster! Please say whether I should continue, because I might not if it's not popular.**

**Disclaimer: Do not own anything recognisable. So don't sue.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN IN FIRST PERSON AS OF 23RD MAY 2012- FULL STORY TO BE REWRITTEN IN THIS WAY, SO DON'T GET CONFUSED! I just feel you can relate to Ava more in first person***

* * *

The snow was beginning to fall, thick and fast. After the day I'd had, this was really the last thing I needed. First, there was that freaking great big spaceship hanging above London for ages, and all those people going on roof's and stuff. I didn't really know a lot about that, to be honest. I was so busy in the kitchen cooking that ridiculously massive turkey to really bother looking out the window- and then, my brother couldn't even be bothered to turn up to eat it. Being a vegetarian, I had deeply thought about my morals while stuffing that innocent bird into the oven. Now, I'd just wasted twenty-odd quid on a turkey which was now being left pointlessly to rot.

Two, my flat had a leak. Not just a tiny, stuff-a-bucket-under-it leak, but a bloody great gaping hole in the roof. My bedroom and a good deal of my hallway were now covered in about 3mm of rainwater- and now, of course, the snow was flooding in. I couldn't stay there, not today; I would've complained to the landlord, but he was away on a family holiday in Barcelona for Christmas and wouldn't be back until the 29th.

And three, my best friend, Rose Tyler, would not answer her phone. And this really wasn't the time to be talking away to an answering machine because I needed help. Now. I had nowhere left to go with her flat destroyed, and I wasn't on speaking terms with my parents. And my brother, God knows where he was.

Trying Rose's number one last time, I clamped her mobile to her ear. The metal frame was numbingly cool against my face, and a just as icy response met me when I realised that it was yet another failed attempt. I sighed, letting out a long stream of mist from my lips. I didn't want to turn up at Rose's uninvited on Christmas day of all days, but I didn't really have any other choice. Unless I fancied curling up in a water-soaked mattress to sleep tonight. Which I definitley didn't, by the way.

Shoving my hands deep into the pockets of my khaki anorak and throwing my hood over my hair, I steadily crunched through the snow up to the entrance of the Powell Estate. The snow was still falling fast, and it didn't show any signs of stopping any time soon. The temperature was gradually beginning to fall to a ridiculous low and the white flakes were starting to freeze rather than stay soft like a blanket. I tried my best not to slip while I was walking. Believe me, it's a lot harder than it sounds.

This really wasn't the best of Christmas's.

-x-

The door flung open just seconds after I knocked on it. Jackie, Rose's mum, Jackie, was standing in the door way; sporting a red paper hat and a grin a mile wide. That grin soon dissipated as she registered the deeply unhappy facial expression on the young girl who was standing opposite her, who was shivering way more than she should. I.e., me.

I opened my mouth to speak, but Jackie's overwhelmingly motherly instincts butted in first. She could not stand seeing anyone, never mind a girl who had been best friends with her daughter since forever, that upset. I honestly don't know what I'd do without Jackie Tyler.

"Jackie, I…" I started, but Jackie silenced me before I could say any more.

"You don't have to explain, dear," Jackie ordered, "Get that coat off and I'm sure Rose has some clothes you can borrow. We've just finished having dinner, but I'll do something for you."

I shook my head but despite my protests, Jackie was having none of it. I was like a second daughter to her, and I had always been here for her during the year Rose had been gallivanting off with some Doctor. That year was just horrible for Jackie and it was just as horrible for me; but I didn't let it show. I stayed strong and I was determined, and without me that year I doubted that Jackie would've been able to get through it at all; Rose meant so much to her. So, so much to her.

"Get yourself into the living room and warmed up, we're just watching the TV." Jackie said, hanging my coat on the edge of the radiator. I paused for a second, looking at Jackie with an are-you-sure look. Jackie shook her head, simply horrified by the idea. "Off you go! We have a guest you haven't met, but I'm sure it won't take long for you two to get acquainted. You're quite alike."

My face relaxed into a smile. I don't know what I would've done if Jackie had said no. "Thank you, Jackie. Thank you."

"It's no problem, Ava," Jackie reassured me. "You're welcome any time."

I flashed one more smile at the woman I could call my mother more than anyone else, before walking down to the kitchen/living room. I creaked open the door, but the three people gathered round the TV didn't notice.

Rose was sat on the sofa, her long blonde hair in loose waves round her shoulders. She was smiling that massive smile, the one that had never changed since we first met back in Primary School. I had been the new girl, just moved down from Manchester to London- completely lost. Rose had taken me under her wing and we've been almost inseparable ever since; apart from that year she'd went missing and didn't bother to call or text or anything. I still didn't know the full story of that, because she'd disappeared off again. Travelling, Jackie had said.

But what exactly did 'travelling' mean?

Next to Rose but perched on the arm of the sofa was Mickey. Mickey Smith. Another person I had known for a long, long time. I had dated him back when I was fourteen, but it didn't work out –like most early teen relationships- but we still remained good friends. He was a little slow, was Mickey. But a good friend. When he started dating Rose, I was happy for them, of course I was. It was weird though.

I had no idea whether they were dating still or not. They had a weird relationship, ever since Rose went off 'travelling'. It was like, before she went off, Rose loved Mickey with all her heart. But now… Oh, how was I supposed to know?

Jackie was right about there being a guest whom I didn't recognise. Sat on the floor to the right of the telly, was a man wearing a pin-stripe suit. He had chocolate brown hair gelled up at the front, and his eyes were wide and laughing.

He was good looking, I couldn't deny that. Was this the man Rose had been travelling with? For some reason, when Jackie had said she'd been travelling with a friend, I had always guessed he would be partially-bald with sticky out ears. For some reason.

"What? What, Rose? You cannot deny that EastEnders is possibly the worst television programme ever produced! It's so _unrealistic!" _the man was talking animatedly about the EastEnders Christmas special which was playing on the TV. Rose was laughing loudly, her eyes watering. I shuffled down a bit, and the man paused and looked straight at me. "Oh. Hello!"

Rose and Mickey instantly snapped their heads round, me for the first time. I smiled weakly. "Um. Hello. Jackie let me in, I hope I'm not…"

"Don't be an idiot!" exclaimed Rose, jumping off her spot on the sofa and running to her me. She grabbed me in a tight embrace, hugging me like we hadn't spoke for years. Well, close enough to years. "Oh God Ava, I've missed you!"

"Well, I tried ringing, but…" I explained, "But you weren't answering."

Rose let go, looking slightly guilty. She glanced briefly at the man sitting on the carpet. "Well, you know, I've been a bit busy. Travelling."

"What she means, Ava," quipped Mickey, he too jumping off the sofa and greeting me with a kiss on the cheek. Mickey was too cute. "Is that she's sorry about being a complete disappearing act."

"Yeah. And that." admitted Rose. "I'm sorry."

I shrugged, smiling. I couldn't help but accept her apology. "It's fine. Don't worry. Everyone… needs to travel at some point."

The man in the corner coughed, like he was begging to be introduced.

"Oh, right," Rose grinned, pushing the man forward. "Ava, meet the Doctor."

The Doctor struck his hand out, and I shook it willingly. "Hello there. I think I need to apologise too, I've been the one whose stole Rose away from you for so long."

"Don't bother," I smiled, only now noticing that I was still gripping his hand. "I'm Ava."

I didn't even bother to question the reason behind the name 'Doctor.' I couldn't deny the fact that from the moment our eyes latched on, sparks were beginning to fly. There was something about this man, maybe it was just his face, but it made me like him.

And I was pretty sure that there was something about me that the Doctor liked too.


	2. A More Sophisticated Camper Van

**A/N: Oh my Gallifrey, thank you so much for all the hits and the five reviews! I didn't think this story was going to be that popular, but I'm going to continue! I hope you love Ava as much as I do. **

**If you want to praise/critic my fiction, don't hesitate to leave a review. They make me such a better writer, to know what's going well and what isn't. Also, any idea's are welcome!**

**Disclaimer: Obviously don't own, otherwise I would not be writing fanfiction. I would be writing the actual show. Ava is mine though.**

****CHAPTER REWRITTEN 24/5/12****

* * *

The steaming hot cup of tea Jackie pressed into my hands instantly warmed me up; the strong, relaxing scent lulling me into a sense of security. Mickey gave up his place on the sofa, but I declined the offer and settled on the floor next to Rose's friend. The mysteriously named 'Doctor'.

"There really is nothing quite like a cup of tea," the Doctor nodded, gesturing towards the mug in mug grip. "All the lovely tannin particles really wake me up."

"Literally," Rose quipped, making Mickey snigger. I didn't really get the joke. Noticing my confused expression; Rose dismissed what she'd just said. "Long story."

I smiled. "I'm a good listener."

Rose opened her mouth to speak, but the Doctor interrupted. "Great big spaceship thing, some very _very _angry aliens, some not so scary voodoo and a sword duel… Well. To put it simply."

"Which you were asleep for most of," Rose retorted, "It was me who saved the day really."

"That wasn't my fault! Sometimes, that happens when a Time Lord regenerates; they fall into a coma and only the mix of tannin particles and the regeneration energy can properly wake them up. Has never happened to myself before, personally. Well, you try something new every day, don't you?" the Doctor babbled at a hundred miles an hour without even pausing for a breath. I had never met a person who could talk so much nonsense so fast. How could Rose ever possibly keep up with him?

"You could've at least told me that _before _the alien invasion." Rose muttered, accepting the cup of tea her mum had passed her.

"If it's any consolation Rose, I thought you were amazing." the Doctor grinned. "Rose Tyler, defender of Earth."

Rose smiled for a second, before her scowl returned. "How would you know I was amazing? You were asleep!"

"The human race hadn't been obliterated when I woke up. And trust me, when I'm not around, that can happen."

"And that _doesn't _make you sound arrogant at all," Rose jibed, grinning that grin again.

"Don't worry dear," said Jackie, nodding at me as she sat down on the sofa with her own brew. "I have no idea what they're talking about either."

I grinned. I was glad someone was along the same wavelength as me.

"Sorry," the Doctor instantly apologised, snapping his head back round so he was looking straight at me. "Was I being rude? Sometimes I can be rude, can't I Rose?"

"Yep," said Rose, without hesitation.

"It's fine." I insisted, finally taking a sip of my tea. I tried to hide my distaste as I realised that Jackie hadn't added any sugar; but I didn't mention it, especially after she'd been so kind. "Just don't expect me to believe any of what you've just said."

"Don't tell me you didn't see that spaceship today, Ava!" said Rose, her eyes wide. "It was like, right above the Estate! And there was people across the buildings ready to jump off!"

I shrugged. "I heard about it on the news, but I was so busy in the kitchen I didn't see anything. I just assumed it was a hoax."

"If I told you that Rose, Mickey, the Prime Minister and I were all right on that spaceship, would you believe me?" the Doctor queried, stuffing his hands in his pockets casually.

I snorted. "You met the Prime Minister? Yeah, like I'm going to believe that."

The Doctor laughed, making his amazing hazel eyes sparkle. The first thing I noticed about the Doctor was his beautiful eyes; he obviously wasn't old, but his eyes suggested otherwise. They were so full of wisdom, like he'd seen so much more than any other average human being. "I've just said that I was on a spaceship with your best friend, and the thing that shocks you the most is the fact that Harriet Jones was there?"

Gorgeous, and with a sense of humour. Rose really had scored this time. "For me, the more comprehendible things are less believable."

"Not the worst motto to live by, Ava." contemplated the Doctor, "Especially if you do the things I do."

"What-" I started, but Rose intercepted as soon as the conversation got interesting. This Doctor sure had a lot to say; and I wanted to hear the answers.

"Why are you here, Ave?" asked Rose, earning a warning look from her mother. "No, I don't mean it like that. I mean, I'm glad you're here. Of course I am. I just thought you had plans for Christmas. Wasn't your brother supposed to be coming?"

I sighed and rolled her eyes, taking another sip of my now rapidly cooling tea. "Yeah, but he was a complete no show. After I slaved all day in the kitchen for him, he didn't even bother to show up. My mother probably had something to do with it. Bitch."

Ugh. My family. A route I'd prefer not to go down, but I always seem to be directed down there anyway.

"Ah," the Doctor flinched, "Not on the best terms with your family, I'm guessing."

"No. Not at all." I said, making that perfectly clear. "Not for a long time now. They bloody hate me, for some reason. To them, my brother is some sort of god and I'm just the girl who didn't quite comply with their rules; followed by promptly being disowned by them. So… Yeah."

Usually I would've found it weird confiding a stranger with her complete back-story, but with the Doctor it was different. There was something about him you could automatically trust. I had never quite met someone like that before. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, I wasn't quite sure yet.

The Doctor pressed his hand on top of mine and squeezed it briefly, instantly comforting me and getting rid of the lump which was rising in my throat. Across the room, I noticed Rose flinching and looking away. "Who needs families, eh?"

I smiled back at him and quickly retracted back my hand from underneath his. It clearly wasn't making Rose feel happy; and I always did what my best friend wanted, within reason of course.

"Don't go putting ideas in Rose's head," Jackie warned sternly. She was very protective over her only daughter; mainly it was the strain of being a single mother to Rose for such a long time. I knew that without Rose, Jackie would just collapse. I'd seen her close to a complete melt-down when Rose went missing.

The Doctor laughed. "Don't worry about that, Jackie."

Rose pressed a kiss on her mother's cheek for reassurance. "So, Ava, did you just want company or something?"

I couldn't help but notice the cold tone to Rose's voice; maybe I was just imagining it, but it was like Rose wanted rid of her. I tried to diminish those thoughts- it was probably because she was tired from travelling.

"Well," I tried not to cringe, "I was kind of hoping for a favour."

The coldness from before, to my relief, evaporated and on Rose's face was an expression of concern. "Anything."

"The problem is… Well, there's a massive hole in my roof. And my whole place is soaked. And…"

Jackie gasped, like I had just told her that her puppy had died or something. "Oh, God, Ava! You'll have to stay here!"

Jackie and Rose's flat was tiny, there was barely enough room to swing a shrew; but Jackie did not want to see me suffer. Jackie was like that. She may look unbreakable and a loud-mouth on the outside, but on the inside she's as warm as warm can be.

My forehead creased with relief that I had somewhere to stay. "It's just the landlord is away and I literally have nowhere else, I hope you don't…"

"You can stay for as long as you like sweetheart!" assured Jackie, putting her mug down on the table. "That really is terrible! Will you be able to get any of your stuff or is it too dangerous?"

"I might be able to salvage some toiletries and some clothes, but apart from that no. It's like a paddling pool in there. A very big paddling pool. Really, if you just lend me your sofa until the landlord gets it fixed up, I'll be really grateful." I prattled.

"You can have my room, Ave." averred Rose, "We'll be going off tomorrow morning probably."

"What? Already?" I exclaimed, pressing my mug onto a coaster on the coffee table, shocked by this sudden revelation. "But its boxing day Rose, and I haven't seen you for ages!"

Rose bit her lip and glanced at the Doctor. "There's so much to see, Ava. The world can't wait."

"Oh. Right." I half-smiled, but my heart dropped. I felt like my best friend was abandoning me all over again. "Plane to catch, right? But I don't know when you became all 'I want to see everything.'"

"Since I met the Doctor, Ave. Everything's just, well, changed." Rose said.

You've changed. You've changed, Rose Tyler. Is London no longer good enough for you? Is it not enough anymore?

"Ava could always come with us," the Doctor chipped in, shrugging at Rose. He looked straight at me.

What?

Rose just stared at him. "…Yeah. Yeah, she could."

What? Just, what?

I actually thought about it for a second. For a second, I thought it was a great idea. Anything to get away from my dead-end life. But the next second, I realised the Doctor was a complete stranger. I might've trusted him, but travelling with a complete stranger? I wasn't sure what to think. "No, I couldn't."

This was all very odd.

"Why not?" asked the Doctor, completely ignoring any complications. He was obviously acclimatised to travelling. "There's so much out there, Ava. Tons you could see. Once in a life time opportunities."

I shook my head tightly. "No. I have a job, house problems, ugh… Just, everything. Yeah, of course, I'd love to escape it. But I can't just run away from things when they're getting tough. That's not how I work, Doctor."

"Can't really argue with that," sighed the Doctor, glancing at Rose. "But if I showed you how we travelled, would you change your mind?"

I rolled my eyes. I hadn't seen anything remotely weird or strange outside the Estate, but they might've had something strange round the corner or something. "Do not tell me you go round in a camper van. Please."

Rose laughed, like she was finally warming to the idea. The idea that I might go travelling with her and her new pal. "As far as things go, it's the equivalent to a camper van."

"Hey!" snapped the Doctor, looking genuinely hurt by the very idea. "The TARDIS is _not _a camper van. She's more sophisticated than that, Rose. Very sophisticated. I thought you'd know that."

"The TARDIS?" I questioned, raising an eyebrow at the Doctor; who I was now beginning to consider a bit more than a stranger. This was really weird, considering I'd only known him for an hour at most. Well, usually, whoever Rose is friends with I'm friends with. That's how it's always worked- why would the Doctor be different? "That is a stupid name. Does it stand for something?"

The Doctor grinned, putting out his hand so I could grab it and get up, "Why don't you just wait and see eh, Ava?"

I sighed, slipping my hand in his. "Fine. I'm still not going, but what have I got to lose? I want to see your 'more sophisticated' camper van. Even if it's just so I can poke fun of it."

Maybe this Christmas wasn't going to be so bad after all.


	3. Blinded

**A/N: Hello my faithful readers! I can't thank you enough for reviewing this especially those who have reviewed more than once! I'd really appreciate five (or maybe even ten :O) more reviews before I post my next chapter. That would be just incredible. I've never had a story this popular before!**

**This chapter is a bit of a filler, with a lot of Ava/Rose dialogue because I just wanted to clear a few things up. Hopefully it's still good! There's just one more chapter to go and then it's straight to the episode New Earth which I'm really excited about fitting Ava into!**

**Disclaimer: Only own the character Ava, everything else belongs to the BBC bla bla bla**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN AS OF 27th MAY 2012***

* * *

I pulled on my khaki rain mac, which was still a bit wet from before but most of the dampness had evaporated after Jackie had slung it on the radiator. I tucked my jeans into my boots and zipped them up; by the time I had finished, the Doctor was out the door and striding across the snow-covered estate.

Rose had finished tying a scarf round her neck, and then waited by the door for me instead of following the Doctor. She sighed, her eyes scanning the view outside. The Doctor was merely a dot among the blanket of snow now. "Um, Ava?"

I pulled my hood over my ears before blinking at Rose. "Yeah?"

"Look, I'm sorry…" Rose mumbled, smiling a little.

"For what?" I asked, trying to hide the fact that I'd thought Rose was cold earlier. I didn't want to fall out with my friend. My best friend at that.

Rose tilted her head. "You know what for, Ava. I was so, well… Icy. Yeah, icy, with you."

I shrugged, aiming to act casual. "To be honest Rose, I didn't really notice. And if you were, I can completely understand. I was intruding on _your _Christmas, after all."

Rose shook her head firmly. "Get that idea out of your head, Ava Jackson. You were in no way intruding, at all." she laughed, "Mum has made that pretty clear many times."

I half-smiled. Rose was telling the absolute truth. "You and Jackie are really too kind to me, you know. I hate sponging off you."

"You may hate it," said Rose, pointing her index finger at me, "But my mum _loves _it. Seriously, you'd of thought that I was enough, especially when… You know. But she adores you, Ava. Always has."

"Well," I grinned, "I am pretty adorable."

"The Doctor certainly thinks so," Rose muttered, still smiling that plastered smile.

I pulled my gloves over my hands, pretending not to hear what Rose had just said. Sometimes, she could be a bit selfish. Sometimes she couldn't cope that not everything (or everyone) belonged to her. "What?"

Rose shook her head. "Nothing. Sorry."

I frowned for a second before smiling again at Rose. "Whatever. Should we go? The Doctor will probably wonder where we've gone."

Rose tucked her arm through mine, pulling me out into the stairwell and closing the door behind her. "Trust me, Ava, he's not going anywhere."

"I know," I said, glancing out the window as they walked down the stairs. I gripped onto the bannister quite tight, seeing as the stairs were quite slippery from the amount of people going up and down in snow-covered boots. "I can't see you even getting off tomorrow morning in this snow; it's pretty deep. The wheels would get all clogged and stuff."

Rose raised an eyebrow cryptically. "You're still pretty much set on it having wheels, aren't you?"

I narrowed my eyes. "Well, duh. How else would you travel without wheels? Apart from walking, obviously."

Rose emitted a quiet laugh. "You're in for a ton of surprises, Ava."

Rose continued walking down the stairs, but I paused for a second. Rose really had changed. She'd gone _weird. _She acted like I was stupid or something- she was keeping secrets from me. And it was never good when Rose kept things from me; Rose and I have always told each other _everything. _

-x-

"So when did you and the Doctor meet, then?" I queried, catching up with Rose. "I've never seen him before; and I know _all _your friends."

Rose's eyes glazed over, and a sort of nostalgic grin creeped up her face. "It was a while ago, actually. At Henriks."

My features scrunched up in concentration as I tried to remember what Rose was talking about. "Oh, aye, Henriks. That's where you used to work, right? Before it went bam." I elaborated by making a crash noise and stretching out my hands. I remember seeing it on the news- I remember rushing round to Rose's house after it happened, becoming so relieved that she hadn't been caught in the blast.

Mind you, she did seem a bit distant then. Like she was thinking about something else. Maybe that 'something else' was the Doctor?

And that was the night she disappeared… Mickey was so distraught, bless him. He couldn't talk about it. He slept on my couch for weeks and weeks, almost becoming a fixture in my house. He got over it though, eventually, after a lot of persuasion on my behalf. It killed him, though. It really did. He loved her so much- and he still does now.

But how would you feel if your girlfriend ran off with another man and didn't return for a year? You wouldn't be feeling too great either.

Rose bowed. "Yep, that one."

"Yeah, I remember…" I nodded, diverting my thoughts away from Mickey. "Your mum would not shut up about compensation."

"You know mum," Rose said, "She'll do anything for a bit of extra cash."

"So…" I craned her neck over with a grin on my face, completely lightening features. "What did he do? Did he rescue you from that burning building? Did he throw you up in his arms and carry you out like Superman?"

Rose slapped my arm playfully. "No, idiot. And don't say that in front of him- especially that Superman bit. His ego's big enough already."

"If you weren't a damsel in distress, what happened then?" I asked, still not dropping the subject. I was determined to extract all the details, like we used to do when we were kids over boys.

"Basically, Ava, he grabbed my hand and told me to run." claimed Rose.

"And that, Rose Tyler, does not equal Superman." I said sarcastically. "If a random man said that to me, I would be thinking… Well, you wouldn't want to know what I was thinking. More like, saviour. Or something."

Rose shrugged, "We were getting chased by possessed shop dummies. I didn't really have time to think anything; I was so busy freaking out inside my head."

I snorted. Not _that _again.

"What?" Rose asked, completely serious. "Oh bloody hell Ava. You really are that naïve. Do not tell me you did not see anything about that on the news- tons of people died! Mum was on the verge of having a break down!"

"Bollocks, the lot of it," I sniffed, "I refuse to believe that kind of thing. Possessed shop dummies? Come on, Rose, that is completely… Next thing you're going to say that whole 'space pig' thing wasn't a hoax too. Has the Doctor put all these ideas in your head, eh, Rose?"

Rose didn't answer any of my questions; she just waved her hand dismissively. "You really are in for a ton of surprises, Ava."

"What the heck is _that _supposed to mean, Rose?" I snapped, a little harsher than intended. "You've started speaking in, I don't know, riddles! Two years ago, you wouldn't believe in any of that shit you see on the TV. Now you've started travelling with this Doctor… You've changed."

Rose sighed frustratedly, turning to grip onto my shoulders so our eyes were completely in line. "Shut the hell up! Maybe I _have _changed Ava, but have you any room into that oh-so-conclusional mind of yours that I might have changed for the _better?"_

I stared at Rose in a sort of stunned silence, shocked by the sudden outburst from my best friend. I'd never seen Rose this angry since I had told her that that Jimmy she'd fallen for was no good for her.

But I'd never, ever seen her that _passionate. _I'd never seen her put up that much of a fight for _anyone. _

"Ava, the Doctor has shown me things you wouldn't believe. He's opened my eyes to such an extent that, well, the little things I can barely see any more. Things that I used to see on a daily basis, like the park or school or that group of chav's that hang around the Estate, I'm just totally blind to. Now it's all just the amazing things that the universe can offer you- they're all that I can see. And have you any idea how that makes me feel? To have your heart constantly racing?" Rose insisted, shaking by the huge of volt of sheer emotion that was running through her.

"No, you wouldn't Ava. Your mind is so closed and tight and you won't let anyone change it. That is your major downfall, Ava Jackson. But the Doctor, no matter how hard you want to shut him out, he won't let you. Don't you see what he's giving you? By letting you travel with us? Ava, he will change your life. You won't look at the world the same again." Rose finished, breaking the almost scary gaze that had binded both her and me for a few moments. She broke off her grip, and went back to walking.

I followed her, but I didn't say anything. What Rose had just said was still whirring around my mind- making me feel almost guilty about what I'd said before.

"You must really love this man," I said quietly.

Rose blushed furiously, tucking her hair behind her ears. "I do, yeah, but not in that way… It's just, ugh, it's just impossible."

"Why?" I shrugged, "I've seen the way he looks at you, and the way you look at him. The way you argued back in the flat. It's blatantly obvious."

"He looked at you in the same way he looks at me, Ava. When he squeezed your hand, Ava. When he reached his hand out so you could hold it." Rose stated, looking upset and distant.

I squeezed her shoulder. "Oh, Rose, that meant nothing. He was just being a gentleman."

"Ava, with the Doctor, stuff like that means _everything. _Especially if you've been travelling with him as long as I have." Rose said, shaking me away.

I didn't reply. I didn't know how to respond to something like that.

There was obviously a lot more to the Doctor than first met the eye. Rose was always so confident around men/boys/lads/blokes, even more so as she worked away up her teenage years. So why would it be impossible for her to share her feelings with the Doctor than any other man? It made no sense.

And why was Rose so convinced that the Doctor liked me more than she did herself? One, we'd only just met. I didn't even know his real name; surely it wasn't the Doctor. Two, I didn't know anything about him. Three, I wasn't even that pretty… My mum made that pretty clear. Interesting, but not pretty. What the heck did interesting mean?

But I was pretty sure that the Doctor didn't care about what you looked like. He didn't seem like that sort of person.

Four, I was a broken girl. I'd been tossed and thrown about by my parents and my family more times than I could count; so why would anyone as exciting and adventurous as the Doctor want to be involved with _me?_

I had no time to ponder my thoughts, because Rose came to a standstill. Looking up, a large, blue box had blocked my vision.

The Doctor was leaning next to it casually, looking completely oblivious to the cold. He was too busy grinning at my astonished and completely bewildered facial expression.

It was a big blue police box. A big blue 1960's police box. And this is what Rose and the Doctor travelled in? How was that physically possible? It was _wood! _And bloody tiny!

The Doctor gestured towards the two doors at the entrance. "So what do you think? A bit more sophisticated than a camper van?"

My jaw dropped to a sense that wouldn't be called dignified. "You could say that."

The Doctor waggled his eyebrows. "Wait until you look at the inside…"

* * *

**A/N: What do you think? Was it boring (I think it was, but I needed to put it in to keep the story flowing). Also I'm sure you like daily updates, but I'm afraid I might not be able to update daily anymore because I have a ton of homework and I want to write really good chapters! I hope you understand x**


	4. Take Me To The Stars

**A/N: I didn't get my five review target :( This time please review if you can, it only takes one minute and it makes my whole day! As always thanks to those who reviewed and alerted this story!**

**There's actually going to be a few more chapters before New Earth, because I'm doing my research into it so I can get most of the dialogue accurate. So look forward to a (very) mini-episode for the Doctor and Ava!**

**Disclaimer: Only own Ava and no-one else. Sheesh**

**REVIEW! Sorry if I sound a bit repetitive, I've spent an absoloute AGE on this chapter.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 27/05/12***

* * *

I narrowed my eyes and span to face Rose, pointing back at the Doctor. "Is this some sort of joke? Because I think he just suggested this is what you _travel _in."

Rose grinned, and the Doctor winked at her. "I did say you were in for a lot of surprises, Ava."

"But this," I spluttered, my arms gesticulating wildly, "It's a box! A bloody tiny wooden box! How… Just how?"

The Doctor was grinning manically, clearly enjoying my reaction. To him, it was obviously pretty amusing showing someone who was so unaware about him and his life the TARDIS for the first time.

E.g., me.

Was he mad? Was I mad? Were we both mad? Was he trying to make me believe that I was mad?

Oh God. I felt dizzy.

"How does it move? Does one of you have to push it? God that must take ages! I suppose you save on petrol, though. But don't you look a bit odd going round in a blue box? People must think you're a bit odd and…" I babbled, until the Doctor silenced me; pressing a finger to his lips.

Rose shook her head. "I wish you'd teach me how to do that, Doctor. I could do with knowing how to shut her up sometimes."

I found myself unable to speak, so I couldn't defend myself.

Oh yes. He was definitley the mad one.

Should I be worried by that?

The Doctor half-smiled, backing away from the side of the TARDIS. "Ah, just another one of my many amazing Time Lord traits, Rose."

"Wait a second- Time Lord? What?" I exclaimed, "Seriously, slow down!"

The Doctor laughed, "One thing at a time, eh?"

I nodded, "That would be nice."

The Doctor laughed again. "I'm seriously surprised you haven't run away yet. Most people take a look at the box and just shoot off. Well, a lot of people."

"Why? It's just a _box." _I sniffed, "It's not scary, it's just, well, weird."

Rose snorted from behind her. I turned round and gave Rose an evil look from over my shoulder, and she merely covered her face with her hands to mask her giggles.

"What?" I snapped, "What have I said this time?"

The Doctor chuckled, shaking his head; pressing his hands on my shoulders. "Would you like to go inside?"

I bit my lip. "Is there really much of a point? There is no way that we can all fit in there."

The Doctor grimaced. "Yep, I definitley see what you mean there, Ava. From what I've seen you're a pretty logical person- from the outside that may seem so."

I raised an eyebrow. "What do you mean 'on the outside'?"

"Nothing and everything." the Doctor answered cryptically, determined not to give anything away.

I huffed. "That is not an answer."

"Just open the bloody door, Ava," Rose said, sounding a bit exasperated.

I glanced up briefly at the Doctor, who splayed his hand out in the direction of the door. "Feel free."

I walked forward, my feet crunching in the snow which sounded so much louder at night than during the day. The only other sound was the noise of the two people breathing behind me; which was sort of creepily calming. I came up to the double-door entrance of the box, smoothing my hands along the dark blue wood. Despite it being outside for the evening, the wood wasn't wet or cold. It was… Well, it was perfect. Completely smooth with no ridges or imperfections.

And the blue, up close, you couldn't even describe the beauty of it. It was so rich and bold, yet so effortlessly elegant at the same time. It was unlike any other shade of blue I had seen before; if I had, I was sure I would've noticed it.

To me, the whole thing was flawless- but despite that, there was no denying that it was incredibly old. The way it just stood there, like it owned the place, just made me think that it had stood in the exact same way in many other places. If it was brand new, the TARDIS wouldn't look like it had as much authority as it had now. The Doctor had clearly travelled in it long before he'd met Rose.

Confusingly, the windows depicted nearer the top of the box were sort of pulsing with a golden glow. It was like there was some sort of immense power hiding away within; but how was that possible? It was a miniscule wooden box. Barely even two people could fit in there- so how could anything vaguely powerful be in there too?

I outlined the circular frame of the Yale lock in the middle momentarily with my index finger, before working my way up to the silver handles. It was like metal had sensed that my hands were freezing cold, so it instantly throbbed with a comforting warmth. I couldn't deny that that was slightly weird, but I didn't let go. I didn't _want _to let go. Something about it just made me want to hold on.

It made me feel safe. Something that I hadn't felt in a very, very long time.

"In your own time," the Doctor teased from behind her, awakening me from the sort-of trance that I'd fallen into. The safety vanished and was replaced with a fear that was blossoming in the pit of my stomach.

There was something about the TARDIS that the Doctor wasn't telling my. It _wasn't _just a wooden box; so what could it be?

There was something pretty scary about the unknown.

I quickly stole a look at the Doctor. He must've noticed how anxious I looked, as the grin he sported so well drained away.

"Doctor, what is…? What is it?" I whispered, trying to hide the fact that I was shaking. I was properly, properly scared.

"Ava," the Doctor said reassuringly, "Behind those doors is probably the most amazing thing you'll ever see. Ever."

Seeing that I still looked unsure, he continued.

"Ava. Ava, look at me." the Doctor asked, and my eyes immediately bored into his. "Open the doors, and you won't regret it. I promise."

"It's not just wood, is it?" I questioned, my voice wavering.

"Ava," he pressed his middle finger under her chin, "Ava. Trust me."

-x-

It was strange how two little words can really change the way you look at someone. The Doctor, who only an hour ago, was a total stranger to me, was now someone I considered way more than a stranger.

All because of those two little words.

Trust me.

I was instantly surged with a new vouch of confidence- the anxiety not completely vanishing, but knowing the Doctor was behind me all the way made me feel so much more brave.

"Ok," I uttered, "I trust you."

The Doctor simply nodded, his face a picture of seriousness. Rose's face was similar but a little regretful; like she was remembering something.

I inhaled deeply, letting the fresh night air into her lungs. I squeezed my eyes tight shut, gripping the handles and pushing them with all my might; even though I had noticed it had said pull on the doors, but for some reason I thought this box wasn't going to tell you the answers straight-forwardly. It was way too complicated to just show you the way.

"You can open your eyes now," the Doctor breathed in my ear. "You've done it."

I waited a second before opening one of her eyes, and the sight that met me just made me almost faint with the adrenaline rush- but I didn't.

I ran forwards, my mouth in a perfect 'o', my eyes not quite believing the sight that met them. This, it was just, just impossible.

The inside was bigger than the outside. So… yeah.

"What I said before, I take it back." I said, walking around the room and smoothing my hands along the coral buttresses and grabbing the cables which festooned the middle panels.

The Doctor was grinning now I had got over her initial fears. "What did you say before?"

"About spaceships and all that crap," I grinned back at him. "How I didn't believe in them. I take it back. Because this is a spaceship, right?"

Rose frowned with concentration. "Time and relative dimension in space," she recited, before looking at the Doctor and he beamed back. "That's what it stands for. TARDIS."

"Maybe not such a stupid name then," I mumbled. I was so busy admiring everything to really take any notice of what Rose and the Doctor were saying.

Everywhere was just impossibly huge; even from the amazingly massive main room, corridors sprouted off everywhere which would probably reveal an infinite amount of rooms. There really was a whole world crammed into this tiny box.

In the centre of the mesh platform was a broad coral-encrusted panel covered in bizarre, out of the ordinary objects in the place of switches and buttons- like this obviously complex machinery had been patched up using the contents of any old junk yard. But the way this stuff which would've been rotting in the ground was being used was incredible; it just proved that the Doctor was really as quirky as he made out to be.

The column at the centre of the panel was pulsing with a faint green light, and the discs inside were moving gently up and down like it knew that someone new was here. Something about this 'spaceship' made me think that it really was _alive. _

"Wait," I paused, "How come it's…"

"Bigger on the inside?" Rose finished, her eyes brightening.

"Dimensionally transcendental," the Doctor corrected her, and Rose stuck her tongue out at him.

"No," I shook my head, "How come it's on Earth? Wouldn't the government take it or something? How did it come here?"

"Let's save that story for another day, eh, Ava?" the Doctor answered, abandoning the subject. "Let's just concentrate on _now. _So what do you say? Want to come with us?"

I knew her answer, but I still had a few questions that needed answering. "Where can we go?"

The Doctor sighed, shoving his hands in his pockets. "Where can we not go?"

"Did he mention that the TARDIS can travel in time too? As well as space?" Rose quipped.

"Rose!" the Doctor scolded, "I was going to drop that on her _gently. _Not just throw it at her!"

Rose glowered. "You threw it at me! But I suppose I'd got used to the idea of aliens. I was getting chased by shop dummies, after all."

"Exactly!" said the Doctor, while I just stared at him with amazement.

"Time? And space?" I squealed like a child, "Are you _kidding _me?"

Rose shrugged. "I've met Charles Dickens."

"Well that's decided then." I said, making my way to the door. "Don't go anywhere, travelling man."

-x-

The clock on the wall revealed that the time was way past midnight. I had been sat on Rose's sofa for the past couple of hours, not being able to sleep.

How could anyone possibly sleep after being told that you were going to travel? Oh, not just travel, but travel in a time machine? It was so unbelievable. It was like something out of a sci-fi movie- that, as well as finding out that aliens existed.

Maybe this Christmas wasn't as bad as I had originally thought. Like the Doctor had said earlier, who needs family? Especially when you have the whole of time and space at your fingertips.

Rose and Jackie had gone to bed a couple of hours ago; Jackie not leaving until she had made sure that I was completely comfortable. She even offered me her bed, but I firmly declined the offer. I was perfectly happy on the sofa, and my head was so full of stuff I wasn't planning on sleeping anyway.

Rose also offered her bed, but I also refused that as well. Rose had then nodded, shuffled off, and closed the door behind her.

The Doctor had a camp bed on the floor in the living room; but in the whole two hours I had been sat there he hadn't returned once. Rose had said he didn't sleep much, but surely that wasn't healthy.

After another ten minutes just staring at the clock, I decided to go and look for him. Throwing on my coat over a pair of Rose's pyjamas, I walked out of the flat and soon found him; standing on the little balcony thing outside that overlooked the Estate. He looked so majestic, with that stern yet serene look on his face. He'd thrown a tan trench coat on over his suit and it was billowing in the wind- he looked so magnificent. I couldn't believe I actually knew this man.

And that man definitley hid a lot of secrets. And I, in time, was going to find out those secrets.

"Hello Ava," he said, not even looking at me. He could sense my presence.

"Hello," I said, standing next to him. "Couldn't sleep?"

"Nah," the Doctor shrugged, "Just seemed a shame to waste the night."

"Yeah." I smiled, looking up at the sky. The stars were visible, but masked with the hazy glow of the streetlights below.

"Look at the stars, Ava," the Doctor told me, he too looking up, "Aren't they just amazing? Yeah, I know, it's London- but other places in the universe you can see those stars perfectly."

"It's funny to think that somewhere further away than I can imagine, an alien could be looking at those stars too," I chuckled.

"Every second, a new one burns into life; big balls of gas and fire and life. There are so many incredible things about the universe, Ava. Every little thing counts." the Doctor went on, his voice filled with passion.

"Something Rose said earlier," I started, now looking at the Doctor instead of the sky. "She had said that she was blind to all the small things, now she'd seen all the big things. Is that what you're going to do to me, Doctor? Because now, all the small things really make me, well, me. Jackie's awful cups of tea, that dog that always shits on my doorstep, that bloody annoying ice cream van that always seems to be around at five o'clock in the morning. Will I not appreciate those anymore?"

The Doctor pressed his hand on mine. I couldn't help but embrace the jitters which were going up my spine. "I can't tell you what to see, Ava. But me, I appreciate everything I see. To me, everything is important. I don't know how you can say that one experience is better than the other."

"You know," I chuckled, "You sound a bit like an intergalactic Jesus."

The Doctor laughed loudly at this, "Maybe I am. I'm certainly old enough. Great guy was Jesus. You'd probably like him." he quickly moved on so I couldn't ask any more questions about that. "Would you like to see one?"

"What? A Jesus? I thought there was only one of…"

"No! Not a Jesus. A star. Any star."

"What? Tonight?"

The Doctor grinned, "Yeah. You can have your first spin in the TARDIS while Rose is asleep, if you want. I promise I'll tell you a bit more about myself."

"Running off with a strange man in the middle of the night…" I half-smiled. It was shameful how much that appealed to me.

"Oh," the Doctor grinned, "I'll promise to return you."

"Okay. Count me in. Take me to the stars, Doctor."


	5. Shallow Space

**A/N: You know what I would like? 25 reviews. Please. If you're reading this now, please do so! I will be your best friend. If you want me to be. As always, thank you if you have reviewed/favourited/alerted or just read this. It's really boosted my confidence as a writer!**

**This chapter was a lot shorter than intended, as I only got on the computer at eight o'clock and I really wanted to post something in time for The Apprentice. Yeah. I'm sad. **

**So, basically, this chapter was going to be double the size but I halfed it so I could write it in an hour- I promise a brill chapter tomorrow!**

**Disclaimer: Only own Ava. Nothing recognisable.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 27/05/12***

* * *

I felt like a criminal; running away in the middle of the night with a man I'd just met, without telling MY best friend who was so obviously in love with him… I'm such a good friend.

But right now, I didn't care. That may sound incredibly selfish, but Rose's welfare was hidden right at the back of my mind. All I cared about was here and now, and the fact that I was going to visit _outer space. _Outer bloody space. This kind of thing did not happen in real life; yet, here I was, inside a flipping space ship!

The Doctor flung his coat over the side of the bar near the entrance, and then bounded up the stairs in two huge strides. He was honestly like a little playful puppy, so eager and full of life. I soon found out that his enthusiasm was incredibly contagious. Within a minute I couldn't help grinning either.

The Doctor danced around the central control panel; which I assumed piloted the time machine.

_Time machine. _I was still coming to grips with that without going mad. Or have I already gone mad? I didn't care.

The Doctor was gliding around effortlessly, twisting regulators and switching buttons with ease- it looked so complicated and random, but the Doctor obviously knew what he was doing. He was also showing off a bit, twisting backwards and flashing a grin at me every so often. He tried to hide his limp when he tried but failed to pull a lever with his left foot. I supressed a laugh.

"Do you actually know how to drive this thing?" I asked, walking up the steps at a lower speed than the Doctor and then lounging on the battered pilot's seat which was bolted to the floor.

"Oh yes," announced the Doctor, pulling down a lever and beaming as a ray of light shot up the central column. "I've been doing it for hundreds of years, Ava!"

I frowned, leaning forwards so my chin rested in my hands. "Hundreds?"

"Ah, well…" the Doctor started, but he didn't get to finish.

"Doctor, you promised to tell me a bit about yourself," I said, recalling back to not long ago. "And you better. You promised."

The Doctor hesitated, but he didn't need to reply. The TARDIS made a loud, wheezy, gratey noise; signalling that we had arrived at our destination.

I abandoned what I was about to say, much to the Doctor's apparent relief. He clearly didn't want to reveal much about himself just yet.

"We're here?" I breathed, barely containing my excitement.

The Doctor grinned. He enjoyed how naïve I was to the universe; how I was learning so much. My disbelief to it all. My look of sheer glee on my face,

"Ava, outside those doors is deep space. The year six-hundred-and-eighty-two-thousand." the Doctor envisaged, "Well, I say deep space. It obviously isn't to the people who live here. I mean, it's probably quite shallow space to… Sorry. I'm babbling, aren't I?"

I didn't even nod. I didn't care that he rambled. "Six-hundred-and-eighty-two-thousand? Has the Earth ended yet? Are there still humans?"

"What?" the Doctor screeched, "Has the Earth ended _yet?"_

I waved my hand flippantly. "You know, 2012 theories and all that."

The Doctor snorted, "Those theories are complete rubbish, Ava. You humans are all for conspiracy, aren't you? Why can't you just believe the possibility that your tiny planet will live for billions more years, and humans will go on and do so many amazing things?"

I dismissed the fact that the Doctor had mentioned humans instead of people. My picture of him was slowly coming together, piece by piece. By now, I was beginning to think that he really didn't originate from Earth…

Any other day I would be freaking out about the prospect that an alien was standing right in front of me. But now, I'd seen so many impossible things that they just seemed- well, possible.

And I loved it.

"You ready?" asked the Doctor, grabbing his coat.

"Yeah, apart from the fact I'm in my pyjamas." I stated, pointing to what I was wearing. Yes, they were very attractive zebra-print shorts and a perfectly good pink vest top, but they weren't really the kind of thing I wanted to wear jumping around an alien planet.

The Doctor coughed. "You should find something in the wardrobe. Right corridor, the left door, through the second-right tunnel, down the pole, the third set of stairs on your middle-left…"

-x-

I wrapped a rainbow patterned scarf round my neck, and pulled a trilby over my head. The Doctor had so many incredibly cool clothes, I didn't know what to choose.

I decided against the dress which was made completely of fur- I sincerely hoped that the Doctor had never worn that before. I wavered between a leather jacket which I found near the entrance, but put it back when I discovered it was way too big for me. And why the heck was there a piece of celery strapped to this cream jacket? Please, please say that the Doctor had never worn _that _before. Surely there were laws against it.

After going through (and almost getting lost, twice) in an infinite crowd of clothes rails, I managed to find a pair of electric blue skinny jeans (which for some reason had 'Ava' written on the label… Weird. I'd have to ask the Doctor about that) and a band T Shirt from some band called the House Martens. I'd never heard of them. The only reason I liked it was because it was in exactly the right size for me.

Leaving Rose's pyjamas neatly folded at the entrance, I pulled the rainbow scarf tighter round my neck. For some reason, I'd become pretty attached to it. The trilby hat also became a fixture. There was something I liked about hats.

Making my way back to the control room, I took a deep breath.

Okay. Deep space. With an almost-one-hundred-percent-sure alien.

This was going to be one heck of a night.


	6. The Glass Planet

**A/N: Please review, I'd like to know what you think about the sudden twist at the end. Enjoy :)**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 27/05/12***

* * *

"So what do you think, Doctor?" I asked, spinning round the platform on the heel of my new grey Converse shoes; swishing the rainbow scarf round my legs.

The Doctor grimaced; "Well…" he winked when he saw my disgusted expression, "No. You look lovely. Love the scarf. Used to wear it a lot."

"That's probably why I became so attached to it, then," I grinned, biting my lip. "The hat yours too, then?"

"Nah," the Doctor said as he ran a hand through his hair. "Not a hat person, myself. I'm more of a hair person."

"That's where you and I differ, Doctor. I'm so much more of a hat person." I replied. I demonstrated this by lifting the trilby off my head and quickly shoving it back on. "Too many bad haircuts when I was little. I specifically remember a school photo when I had an abominable mushroom cut, and I haven't been able to live it down since."

"There's nothing wrong with a mushroom, Ava." tutted the Doctor, approaching the doors of the TARDIS. "Unless, of course, you're talking about the carnivorous toadstools in the Perpetual Forests. Then there is definitley something wrong with a mushroom."

I laughed at the insanity of it all. "If you see the photo, my haircut did look slightly carnivorous."

I skipped down the stairs so that I was side-by-side with the Doctor. The scarf was longer than it really needed to be and it almost made me trip over, but I wasn't taking it off. Something about it almost made it fuse to my neck.

"Doctor, could I do the honours? Of opening the door?" I questioned, trying to contain her excitement.

The Doctor gestured towards the entrance. "It's your first trip, Ava. I could do this anytime."

Outside the two, supposedly thin, wooden doors was a new world. Me, plain old Ava Jackson, was going to be the first ever human being from the 21st century to step onto this new world. And that was _amazing. _The fact that I was going to be the only person from the 21st century to see this… It made me feel so extraordinary.

My mother was wrong all those years ago when I was kicked out. Ava Jackson was special and would amount to things.

And that, the first ever door opening, was going to be the start of many more.

It was only just the beginning.

-x-

Everything around her was entirely made of glass. Crystal-clear, completely transparent glass. So clear, that it looked like the life-forms (I couldn't be particular) which populated this place were literally walking among the stars and the midnight-blue sky.

At the centre of this glass planet was an orb of bright orange light. It was like all the glass had been built around this orb- like it was a core. The planet's visible core. It should've been blindingly bright, but for some reason I could stare at it without even my vision going blurry. It was like the glass was shielding me from the initial brightness- despite it being completely clear like a window.

Rockets and other modes of outer-space transport were whizzing about above our heads, every so often ducking down and parking or lifting off and blasting into space. I could see exactly where each one landed and each one took off- I could see pretty much everything.

Including aliens. Lots and lots of aliens.

But that wasn't thing that surprised me. It was the fact that on this planet, I wasn't the only human. Hundreds and hundreds of her species were milling about, doing their own thing, taking this amazing glass planet as the norm. To them, this was completely normal. To them, my century belonged in the history books. Long forgotten.

The human race had lived on. They didn't perish in the dramatic end of the world theories; they were here, in the year six-hundred-and-eighty-two-thousand. And something about that made me feel so warm inside- my descendants would be alive somewhere. Rose's descendants. And… Oh god, that was just… Well, it was unbelievable.

"So what do you think?" the Doctor breathed in my ear. "Not bad, eh?"

"Not bad?" I exclaimed, taking one more second just too properly take in my surroundings. "It's incredible! Whatever _it _is. A glass planet?"

"Well, you got the name correct," the Doctor shoved his hands in his pockets, "The Glass Planet."

"Seriously?" I raised an eyebrow, "Very original."

"Yeah," the Doctor wrinkled his nose, "I suggested The Big Amazing Enormous Glass Planet, but that was deemed 'too adventurous'. The Planet Naming Society have gone down the pan recently, if you ask me. They've stopped taking my advice- ever since I _accidently _caused a massive war between Planet m56 and Planet m57. Seriously, you make one mistake…"

I shook her head. "So do people live here?"

"Oh no," the Doctor replied, "It's more like a massive tourist destination. Literally billions of life-forms come here daily because of the sheer impossibility of The Glass Planet."

He grabbed my wrist and dragged me through knots of humans, humongous robotic things and various aliens- one caught my eye in particular; it was basically a badger in a spacesuit. I didn't stare at it though, that would've been a bit rude.

We finally stopped at a sort of café thing, where a humanoid woman with silver skin and bright green eyes was standing behind a desk. On the wall behind the desk were hundreds of bottles, each filled with a different colour liquid. Some of them were frothing and bubbling, others were completely still, and one or two had various lumps floating in them… And, for some reason, none of the signs which were scattered around said what those lumps actually were.

The sign above the desk read 'Core Shakes', so I presumed it was some sort of intergalactic milkshake bar.

"Ava, we cannot come to The Glass Planet without you trying one of these," insisted the Doctor, pointing to the desk. "Core Shakes. They're brilliant!"

I winced. "I don't know, Doctor, they look pretty awful…"

"Oh, trust me, they're not," the Doctor approached the desk with me in tow. "The Glass Planet is the first ever planet to have a real, living star as its core. Literally, a star. A group of very, very clever scientists came all the way out here, trapped the star, and just started to build around it. Isn't that amazing?"

"What has that got to do with these shake things?" I asked.

"Once the scientists had finished building –it took over a thousand years, the glass is a billion miles thick to stop things from getting scorched- they discovered that the core left a sort of residue. They collected the residue and did lots of really complex tests on it and they found out that the residue was _safe to eat. _Not only that, it was delicious! So they collected the entire residue and made these shake shacks and they've been popular ever since."

"So they're… Not as disgusting as they look?" I asked, hopefully.

"Think of the most delicious thing you've ever tasted, times that by a million, and then you're about a tenth of the way there."

I jumped onto a barstool round the desk. "Okay, I'll have one. If you order. Plus, I get to spill it all over you if it tastes horrible."

The Doctor pointed to an item on the board, and the woman nodded and turned around to the various bottles. "You can throw it on the floor and force me to drink it. And I don't say that very often."

I grinned and rested my hands on the desk, drumming my fingers on the table top. I hadn't slept at all, but no way was I tired.

The Doctor was chatting away to the woman at the till; she had a very musical voice that sounded a bit like birdsong. She was working very fluently and I soon discovered that she had six arms doing six different things.

Suddenly, I felt a pair of hands clamp round my shoulders. I gulped and shot straight around in my chair- who the heck was that? I quickly glanced to my side and saw that the Doctor was still there, so I could scream if I needed too. Not that I was going to

In front of me was a man, with dark mussed up hair, a cocky grin, and a long grey military coat.

"Hello, Ava. D'ya miss me? I didn't think I'd be seeing you so soon." he flashed a cocky grin, his American accent prominent. I had never met this man in my life… So how did he know me?

"Who the heck are you?" I demanded. I didn't like men who were this straight forward and in-your-face. And good looking.

His face instantly fell. "Wait… You don't know me? Makes sense, I suppose. You knew me when I first met you."

"What?" I screeched, "Am I supposed to know you?"

"I better start at the beginning." the man struck out his hand. "The name's Captain Jack Harkness."


	7. Revelations

**A/N: Anyone else in love with Chameleon Circuit? I sure am- Everything is Ending is definitley my favourite song.**

**As always I thank you for your reviews, they really make my day! Don't hesitate to write me another for this chapter- I'm so glad you liked Jack, and I promise he's not travelling far!**

**Disclaimer: Only own Ava, nothing recognisable :)**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 28/05/12***

* * *

I was a bit unsure at first, but my impulsive streak took over and I slipped my hand in is and shook it. Jack pressed a light kiss on the back of my palm, and I couldn't help but embrace the jitters that were going up my spine.

Two gorgeous men in the space of, what, six hours? I had never seen two gorgeous men in the space of nineteen years, never mind six hours. Talk about a coincidence.

"Ava Jackson," I introduced herself to the flirty stranger, "Though you already seem to know that."

Jack waved his hand dismissively. "Time travelling. It's a complex subject; you don't necessarily meet people in the right order."

"Wait… You're a time traveller?" I queried, "You mean the Doctor isn't the only one?"

Jack fiddled with a strap wrapped round his wrist. "Heck, this is early for you. How long have you been travelling with the Doctor?"

"Two hours. Ish." I estimated, "This is my first ever trip in the TARDIS. Amazing."

Jack nodded approvingly. "Not bad for a first trip, The Glass Planet. Those Core Shakes are bloody incredible."

"Yeah. The Doctor's just getting me one. It's taking a while." I pointed over to further down the desk, where the Doctor was still chatting away to the woman who was hard at work. "You could wait for a while. If you're friends with him, I'm sure he'd like to speak to you."

Jack narrowed his eyes. "Just to clarify, does the name Martha mean anything to you?"

I shook my head. "Nah, doesn't ring a bell. Unless you mean Martha the slapper who was in my Year Eleven English class- but I don't think you do."

Jack laughed. "No, not her, I don't think."

"Good, 'cos she was always Rose's worst enemy." I elaborated, "Rose is my best friend. Do you know her?"

Jack's eyes brightened, "Rose Tyler? You mean now, she's…"

"She's what?" I barked, cutting Jack's sentence.

"No. Nothing. Just I… Haven't seen her in a while." Jack smiled sadly.

I frowned- my mind was confused and in a sense of turmoil. I was still trying to grab the concept of time travel, and the fact that Jack knew me and I didn't know him… So Jack was from the future, yeah? _My _future? So was he basically saying that he'd seen me recently but _hadn't seen Rose?_

I gulped. What was that supposed to mean?

"But how come you've seen me lately but not Rose?" I quickly questioned.

Jack opened his mouth, but he couldn't seem to find the right words to say. "Like I said, time travel is complicated. I can't tell you of events which happen in your future. That's how it works…" he quickly moved on to his next inquiry, so I didn't have time to question his answer. That's happened to me a lot recently. "Where is Rose?"

I didn't reply straight away. My brain was in knots, but I dismissed Jack's statement about Rose. Maybe it was just an innocent slip-of-the-tongue, or maybe Rose was busy the day this Jack had seen me last… I pushed away the fact that Rose would probably never stop travelling with her beloved Doctor. In the future, Rose wasn't going to be…

"She's on Earth," I said, not giving away Rose's address- I didn't quite trust this man yet. "I couldn't sleep, neither could the Doctor, so he took me to the stars."

"The Doc's first trip without Rose, huh?" Jack exhaled heavily, "This really is way too early for me… He can't know I'm here yet."

I was tired of asking questions, but I managed to say "Why? And don't you dare say it's too complicated."

Jack started pressing various buttons on the leather strap round his wrist. "I'm sorry Ava, but I'm going to have to go. I'll explain at our next meeting- I remember it clearly." he grinned a wistful grin, "That was a great night."

I groaned with annoyance. Not only was Jack the second man I'd met in the past six hours who was good looking, but he was also the second man I'd grown to like. As well as the second man to be totally over-secretive.

These time boys grew on you really quickly.

"Don't tell the Doc that I've been here, Ava," warned Jack, "Otherwise that could end in a whole lot of paradoxes and other crap… Unless he was being incredibly rude the last time we met. But I'm not going to take that risk."

I ran a hand through my hair which was sticking out the bottom of my hat. "Okay. I promise, you strange American man."

He gave me a mock salute. "'Till the next time, Ava Jackson. And boy, what a night we'll have."

Jack pressed a button in the centre of his watch-thing, and he disappeared in a flash of electric blue light- the same colour of my jeans.

-x-

"Sorry I took so long," the Doctor apologised to me as he clanked the drinks onto the table and slid onto the seat. "That woman would just not stop talking."

"I see," I smiled, accepting the drink which the Doctor had passed to me.

It was the longest glass I'd ever seen; it was easily the length from my waist to my shoulders, so I had to lean over it to drink it. Despite it being full to the brim with a vivid, green, fizzing liquid the glass was completely stainless and transparent, similar to the glass this weird planet was made from.

"What exactly is in this?" I pondered, looking slightly disgusted at the slimy fluid. There was something about green drinks that I didn't quite trust.

The Doctor twirled round his straw in his drink. "It's Applegrass flavour core residue. We're lucky; this is the only Core Shake on this planet that serves the Applegrass ones and they're easily the best."

I winced as I slotted the straw between my lips and took a slow sip- after all; I was usually up for anything. Surprisingly, it wasn't half as bad as I first thought; it tasted a bit like Appleade, but slightly earthy. It was an ok combination- not bad for my first taste of outer-space cuisine.

"Not bad, but it's not as great as you make out, Doctor," I announced, turning to my new companion. The Doctor had abandoned the straw that was stuck in the top of his drink and had strewn it across the bar, and was glugging the liquid back at an alarming pace.

"What?" he asked, turning back to me when he'd slurped his glass dry. He had a thick, pale green moustache across his upper lip.

I sniggered, "Uh, Doctor, you've got a bit…" I mimed a moustache across my upper lip to demonstrate.

"Ah," the Doctor grinned, wiping the sleeve of his coat across his mouth. "Okay, you ready?"

"What?" I spluttered, "We've literally just sat down, Doctor!"

"But what's the point in sitting down the whole time?" the Doctor whined, like a little kid being denied access to the biscuit tin. "There's so much more to see on The Glass Planet, Ava. There's so much more running to do!"

"I haven't finished the drink yet…" I sighed, pushing the glass over to my friend. "Actually, you have it."

"Seriously? Do you not like this, Ava?" exclaimed the Doctor, "You must be the only person I've met who doesn't give in to a Core Shake."

I rolled my shoulders. "They're alright, but not amazing."

"You're full of surprises, Ava," the Doctor said, picking up my drink and glugging it back again. He saw my look of disbelief. "Sorry, was I being rude?"

I shook my head. What a strange man. At first he seemed complex and hidden; a complete mystery. The next he was an outright weirdo.

"So what exactly is there to see on The Glass Planet, then?" I asked.

The Doctor leapt of his seat and landed with a thud onto the glass platform, "Everything a good tourist destination has. History, art, a lovely little shop. I love a shop." the Doctor started, before waggling his eyebrows in an intriguing way. "Then, of course, there's the inner core. The most amazing part of the whole planet. Unfortunately, only the rich people –you know, the aristocrats and a lot of crooks- are allowed to go anywhere near it just down to its sheer popularity."

My face fell. That seemed rather exciting.

"No, Ava, don't go sad on me. We can't have that," his grin grew wider as he produced a leather wallet from his pocket, enclosed inside a blank piece of paper. "Because I have this!"


	8. An Unlikely Genius

**A/N: Sorry about the whining review that I posted, I just had to make a point to an anonymous reviewer: this story is in the right category and if you think otherwise, learn to read. Just because you list a story under two characters does not mean they have to be a romantic pairing: and who says my story won't end with Ten/Rose? So yeah, go away and do something worth doing.**

**Anyway, sorry for that! Some people can't gather the facts before throwing accusations. Thank you so much to all of you who read this story and leave so many lovely reviews! I hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the last, and I promise Rose will be coming back soon and it's off to New Earth. Please leave a review if you can :)**

**Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who. Only Ava and a bit of the plot.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 28/05/12***

* * *

I didn't want to ruin the perfect smile that had settled on the Doctor's face, but I had to tell him the truth. "Um, Doctor, that paper is blank… How is that going to help either of us?"

The Doctor's brow furrowed, as he glanced at the wallet in his grip again. "Really? You can't see anything?"

"I'm not stupid, Doctor," I growled, "I can tell when something is blank or not- and that definitley is."

"You're definitley not stupid, Ava," the Doctor observed, lowering his voice as he slipped the wallet back into the pocket of his coat. "You're the exact opposite. You're remarkable."

I sighed, slightly annoyed. "Now that's just patronising. A toddler could say whether a piece of paper was blank or not- that doesn't make me remarkable. That just means I have _eyes._"

"No, Ava," the Doctor said, getting the wallet back out of his pocket and pressing it onto the table in front of us. "This isn't just any paper."

"And why doesn't that surprise me?" I said in a cynical manner which was beginning to grow on me.

The Doctor ignored her. "This is psychic paper, Ava. It appears blank, but it sort of gives off a low-level telepathic field. It causes the viewer to see whatever they want to see, or see what they expect to see; like an invitation or security pass."

I gasped rather dramatically. "That's like… I don't know, extreme fake ID! Is that even allowed?"

"Yes," the Doctor considered, "Unless you get caught."

"Anyone could say that about anything," I pointed out, "But why can't I see it? Is there something wrong with me?"

The Doctor picked up the wallet and started drumming it between his forefinger and thumb. "Psychic paper has a limited capacity; it doesn't work on certain individuals. Geniuses and people who have appropriate psychic training aren't fooled by its illegitimacy."

I frowned, "But I haven't had psychic training."

The Doctor grinned, "Exactly."

I slapped the Doctor mockingly on the arm. "Oh, shut up."

The Doctor shrugged, "The psychic paper doesn't lie. Well, it does, but not in that sense."

"No way am I a genius, Doctor," I insisted, "Six crap GCSE's to my name, and only one of those came above a D. See? That, in my book, does not mean genius."

"You don't have to have an IQ off the charts to be a genius, Ava," the Doctor said, "There are so many other forms of brilliance. Intelligence is just one."

I laughed coldly and without feeling. I refused to believe that I could be anywhere near a prodigy. "I don't think so. Talk to my mother, and she'll back you up on that."

The Doctor looked at me sympathetically. I instantly dragged my eyes away from his face and my cheeks flushed uncomfortably. I hated putting everything back down to my useless parents; I didn't want an excuse for him to feel sorry for me. All I wanted was to have one amazing adventure, without having to think about _them. _

I had a sad smile pinned to my face, although it was very weak. I think the Doctor could tell that I hadn't really smiled all that much in my nineteen years on Earth. I'd seriously smiled more in the past six hours or so than I've ever had in the whole of my life.

Woah.

The Doctor pressed a consoling hand on my shoulder. He could tell, somehow, that I wasn't happy. And he didn't like that.

"Come on. Let's go and break another hundred or so rules of the Shadow Proclamation by using this bad boy," the Doctor said, waving his psychic paper in my eye line. Then he saw my disapproving look. "Ok. Bad boy. Not saying that again."

I grinned. And he grinned back.

Maybe now was time to catch up on all those smiles that I'd missed.

-x-

The Doctor and I pushed past the crowds of life-forms (I was still getting used to using that term instead of people) to get to the entrance of 'The Core'. There was at least ten security guards manning the entrance, all ten of them looked similar to the silver woman at the shake shack. If someone without valid ID got anywhere near them, they simply shot a bolt of electricity from a ring round their finger which reduced them to dust.

The Doctor saw my astonished look as we approached the front of the queue. "Wouldn't worry about that, if I were you. I've seen those sort of things before. They just teleport you to a different part of the planet- it's basically a way of scaring people off. They obviously couldn't really kill anyone."

I sighed with relief. "Good. Because what we're going to do is hardly legit, is it? What if they've had psychic training too?"

The Doctor contemplated that for a second. "Nah. Those guys are brawn, not brains. No way would they be able to grab the concept of psychic activity- they can barely read what's in front of them."

"Talk about jumping to conclusions," I muttered. "I thought your horizons were wider than that, Doctor."

"Oh, yeah, my horizons are pretty wide," the Doctor said, getting his paper ready. "It's those guys who are struggling."

I shook her head- the Doctor had completely missed the point. Or had he? Nobody could ever presume what that man was thinking.

Alien man. The Doctor hadn't yet told me that he actually was an alien; but it didn't take a genius to establish that the Doctor wasn't actually from Earth. And, according to the Doctor, I was a genius- so I'd figured that out a while back.

But what kind of alien? And why did he look so much like a _human? _There were humanoid aliens around me as well as actual humans, but not any human-like aliens like him.

Or maybe the humans weren't really humans at all? What if they were all his species?

So many questions, so little time.

-x-

Despite the Doctor telling me not to worry, I still flinched and prepared to be vaporised as the Doctor flashed one of the guards his fake credentials.

"Emperor and Empress Finchley and Cordell of the Muluminan Peninsula." the guard announced in a grunty tone.

The Doctor elbowed me as he turned to bow to the gathering crowd. I was confused, but I still did a small curtsey. Were we royalty?

The crowd all looked at us for a second, before shouting and cursing abuse at the guards again. They obviously didn't care who the heck was going into 'The Core', they just wanted to get in there themselves. Whatever the Core actually was.

"These guys are being privileged with our royal presence, yet they don't even give us a second glance." the Doctor tutted, as the guards made way and let us through.

"To be fair, they probably don't even recognise us." I narrowed my eyes, "Does the Muluminan Peninsula exist?"

"Oh yes," said the Doctor as he pulled back a scarlet curtain which seemed to just appear in front of us. "A really primitive race that live over thirty billion light years away. No way would they be able to get here. Of course, those guys won't know that. Their horizons are too narrow."

The Doctor grinned at me, I half-smiled back. We were getting closer to 'The Core', to the extent that we could see it pretty clear through the glass.

I coughed. "Um, Doctor?"

"Yeah?" inquired the Doctor.

"Where exactly do you come from?"

The Doctor stopped dead in his tracks.


	9. Happy Stars

**A/N: Wow. Forty-two reviews. I had no idea this story would become this popular! Anyway, I hope you enjoy this chapter loads and please review it if you can! The drama sort of starts in the next chapter, and that's when I begin my AU rewrite of series 2. Eek!**

**And if you have time on your hands, check out my two new one-shots- Flash Back and The Last Page. Leave a review if you want, I'm just testing my one-shot writing abilities.**

**Disclaimer: Only own Ava. As well as the Glass Planet.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 28/05/12***

* * *

"It doesn't matter," the Doctor tried to assure me as he ushered me to a set of doors.

"Don't give me that crap, Doctor," I warned, "I know you're not human. And now I've sort of ran off with an alien, I kind of want to know what planet you originate from."

The Doctor paused at the door, his expression angst-riddled and a picture of cold sadness. I almost regretted asking him, due to the look on his face- almost. You can't begin travelling with someone you barely know anything about. "I'll tell you. If you really want. But not here."

My tone softened. "Fine."

The Doctor offered me a small smile, before flinging open the doors.

Woah. Now I could tell why so many people wanted to get close to 'The Core', even though you could see it through the glass.

It was so _beautiful._

Beams of light danced off it, reflecting off the glass and making rainbows spin wherever you looked. I grinned as my arms glittered with the sparkling starlight. The Doctor's expression from before quickly evaporated into a look of ecstasy, as he too admired the shimmering dust. Something about the beauty of it just made you, well, happy.

I twirled on her toes, trying to catch the rainbows with my arms. Words couldn't describe the feeling. "This… Oh god, this is amazing!"

"I told you," the Doctor half-whispered; he was mesmerised. "I've been here so many times, but it never gets any less incredible."

"How does it work?" I asked, "How come everything is just amplified in this room?"

"It's the glass," the Doctor said; I noticed that he'd pulled a pair of those funny red and blue 3D glasses over his eyes. "It really is amazing: it's made up of millions of different particles from millions of different galaxies. And all these millions of different particles have different purposes, so the scientists who made this planet adjusted the glass to a specific purpose. With a flick of a switch, they can change the light filters and the heat filters. For this room, they just lessened the endorphin filters so you can really feel the benefits!"

"Endorphin filters?" I questioned, reaching out for the dust that was streaming across the room.

"Yeah!" exclaimed the Doctor, who sounded a little high. Mind you, I _felt _a little high. "These stars in the Corpian galaxy have very high levels of endorphins- you know, feel good chemicals. If you increase or reduce the endorphin filters, you're literally adjusting the levels of happiness in the room. Isn't that just brilliant?"

"Happy stars!" I cried, "That _is _brilliant!"

"Happy stars!" the Doctor repeated, laughing loudly. "That's definitley what they are, Ava. Happy stars!"

"Now, I can totally understand why people want to come here so badly. Who wouldn't want to feel like this?"

"I don't know, Ava. I really don't know."

A beat.

"Doctor, does your home planet have happy stars?"

-x-

The Doctor had taken me away from the central room, to a place where the light was just as bright and beautiful but the endorphins were at a lower state. I was sort of glad of that; I was beginning to get a bit light-headed.

One of the stewards had handed me a complementary picnic hamper filled with food, so I accepted it graciously before settling down next to where the Doctor had sat himself.

I crossed my legs, pushing the hamper in front of the two of us. The Doctor didn't acknowledge this at all, he just kept staring out into the light; but he wasn't even looking at that. He was just staring, a look of distance in his ancient, faraway eyes. I didn't know how to respond to him, so I just did what he'd done to me hours earlier.

I pressed my hand on top of his.

The Doctor blinked, dragging his eyes away from the light. "Sorry. I zoned out."

"You don't have to tell me if you don't want to, Doctor," I whispered. "You've just met me, after all."

"No no no," the Doctor shook his head, "I want to. I do. You've told me all about you, so I need to tell you stuff about me."

I shook my head. "No-"

"I'm not human." the Doctor said quietly, "But I'm sure you've established that already. You are a genius."

I chuckled a little. "Your words, not mine."

"As I was saying, I'm not human. I'm from a planet, a long long way away from here. Gallifrey." the Doctor said, his eyes going back to looking faraway and distant. "I'm part of a species called the Time Lords."

I let out a long breath. "Time Lords. Woah. Kind of fits with the whole time machine thing though." I paused. "But why do you look so human?"

"Why do you look so Time Lord?" the Doctor retorted, "We came first."

"Oh. Good point." I laughed. "But what differentiates humans from Time Lords then? I mean, we look pretty much the same. As far as it goes."

"Off the scale intelligence," the Doctor grinned before pointing to his chest, "And two hearts supported by a binary vascular system."

My eyes almost bulged out my head. "Seriously…? Can I?"

The Doctor rummaged round his pockets and chucked me a stethoscope. I plugged it into my ears and leaned forward, pressing it to the side of the chest where a heart _should _be beating. Sure enough, yes, there was a steady heartbeat.

I took a quick glance at the Doctor, who waggled his eyebrows. "Try the other side."

I hoped I didn't look like an idiot when I pressed the stethoscope to the other side of his chest.

I supressed a gasp as another just as steady heartbeat pumped through to my ears.

Still amazed, I took off the stethoscope and handed it back to the Doctor. "That… That is incredible. I'm mind blown. You really _are _an alien."

"Yep," he popped the 'p'. "I guess I am."

"But why wouldn't you want to tell me that?" I queried, "You've just taken me to a planet made entirely of glass in a time machine. It's not like I'm going to contradict that."

The Doctor stammered on his words. "Ava, I'm… Well, I'm the last of the Time Lords."

I felt like all the wind had been knocked out of me. I wasn't expecting that. "Oh god… What happened?"

The Doctor waved a hand dismissively. "It was a long time ago. There was a big war."

My eyes were wide and full of emotion. "Did you fight?"

"Yes. Yes, I did. On the front line. But I couldn't… Nobody could." the Doctor shook his head, running a hand through his hair. "But it's all over now."

I only knew one way too react.

I wrapped my arms round him and enveloped him in a hug.

I didn't expect the Doctor to hug me back, but he did.

"I'm nine hundred years old, Ava." said the Doctor, as I nuzzled my head into his shoulder. "Would that surprise you?"

"No." I replied straightaway. "I've only known you for what, eight hours? And you've already shown me that absolutely everything is possible."

The Doctor let go. "That offer, of travelling with me and Rose. It still stands. We could do with an extra point-of-view."

I raised an eyebrow. "Is that the only reason?"

The Doctor grinned. "No, Ava, it's because you're brilliant."

I shrugged, "I can live with that."


	10. Flash Back

**A/N: Okay. I lied. Next chapter is New Earth, but I'm bloody pleased with this chapter. There is a lot of pure, hard emotion in this chapter which I really enjoyed writing. It's my favourite so far.**

**Also, please review! If you find yourself reading this chapter, or any other chapter, just drop me a few words saying if you hated or loved it. Seriously, one or two words would make my whole day. As always, thank you to those who already reviewed this, I love you all!**

**And if you have some time on your hands, check out my one-shots Flash Back and The Last Page. I'm quite proud of them, and I'd appreciate feed back. Sorry, I don't like advertising, but I couldn't help it! x**

**Disclaimer: I think by now you know what I own and what I don't own.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 02/06/12***

* * *

_The Doctor grinned. "No, Ava, it's because you're brilliant."_

_I shrugged, "I can live with that."_

"Good," said the Doctor. He reached out for the picnic basket which I had plonked in front of us. "Because I'm sure Rose would like you there too. She was always talking about you."

"Really?" I asked, my eyes brightening. "I didn't think she'd mention me at all!"

"Well," the Doctor tensed, "She did a few times."

I narrowed her eyes. "She didn't mention me, did she?"

"She did," the Doctor said, but I was feeling less and less convinced. "Once. We were eating chips after watching the sun expand and she said: 'We should've invited my mate along. She eats these by the vat load.'"

I just stared at him, dumbfound. When I noticed that his expression was deadly serious, I almost contemplated slapping him across the face. Even if that was true, you don't say it, do you? "Seriously? The little…"

The Doctor erupted with laughter, "Ha! Not really. I just wanted to see your facial expression!"

It didn't take the Doctor long to realise that he was the only one laughing. He quickly coughed and returned to his natural expression and muttered an apology; before looking back up at my pissed off features and spluttering out another laugh.

"That," I grunted, folding my arms, "Is so _not _funny."

The Doctor shook his head; still grinning even though the moment had passed. Although he was laughing _at _me and not with me, I was pleased to see that beautiful grin of his had now settled on his face rather than the look of despair was taking over before. I still had lots to learn about the Doctor, but I was going to take it one step at a time. And he still had a lot to learn about me.

We were going to be great friends, I knew it. Even Jackie had said we were alike, even though I'd never met this man before in my life. And that's got to mean something, right?

The Doctor opened the lid of the picnic hamper. "This is what I love about these places, Ava. Complementary picnic baskets! Not many places I know have complementary picnic baskets. You know you've come to a top quality place if they give you a complementary picnic basket."

"I suppose it's a bit like going to a hotel." I observed as the Doctor lifted a colossal bottle of some purple liquid out the hamper. "You know you've come to a good place if they give you quality freebies."

The Doctor's face lit up as he extracted two pots of jam- one marmalade, one strawberry. "Yep. I've visited a thirty billion star hotel before; they gave you a whole galaxy on behalf of staying there. And your own slave race. Of course, as soon as I found out about that, I put a stop to it."

"Is that what you do, Doctor?" I questioned, raising my eyebrows at an extraordinarily-sized cake which had been set out in front of me. "Save people? When something –no matter where, no matter what time- is in trouble, you stop it?"

The Doctor shook his head firmly. "No, far from it. But I do try my best. The universe, Ava, is way too vast for me to make a proper impact."

"I bet that is a lie." I scoffed, "You are the sole survivor of a war, and you fought on the front line; people are going to know about you. Rose practically _worships _you from what I've seen. Even if you don't visit all the far corners of the universe and don't save every single person, that does not mean you don't make a proper impact on the people you _do _save. Heck, I barely know you, but I already feel like you've rescued me. No-one, and I mean no-one, has ever made me feel as happy as you've done tonight. And Doctor, that in itself is an achievement. It takes a lot for me to ever feel truly happy."

Silence took over us for a moment. I had realised that with the Doctor, silence was a rarity. He was constantly talking, constantly on his feet and bounding about like an eager child.

Not bad for a man who was over nine hundred. How that worked, I didn't know.

"Has anyone ever mentioned, Ava Jackson," the Doctor said, slicing the silence like a knife. "That you're fantastic?"

"Well," I started to list on her fingers, "There's this one man who seems to think so. He also says that I'm brilliant, a genius…"

The Doctor's eyes hardened, instantly catching my gaze. "No. Before me. As anyone ever told you just how amazing you are?"

My eyes glassed over, as old memories from the back of my mind came into vision. Sad memories. "No."

The Doctor leaned forwards, closer to me. "Do you mind…?"

I blinked, unsure about what he was about to do. But I nodded.

"Trust me, Ava." he whispered, reaching out his hands and pressing his finger-tips against my temples.

_Trust me. _Those two words echoed round my head as the Doctor entered my mind and began to dance between my memories…

-x-

_It was the first day of reception, back in primary school. My mother pressed a kiss on her eldest child's cheek, and her son squirmed in his mother's grip. He ran across the playground to play with the other boys. My mother then turned back to me, and looked at her daughter- her eyes filled with something a five year old like me could not describe._

_My mother pressed a reading folder into my daughter's grip- then walked out of the playground without a second glance._

I flinched. The first memory of my mother walking away from me. The Doctor sensed my tension.

"Do you want me to stop?" he asked, his voice filled with concern.

"No." I mumbled; too distracted by the fact a man was rooting through my mind.

_London. New place, new start. A long way from Manchester._

_I had been sent to school on my own, but I was smart and worked out where it was situated. My dad had given my brother a lift, but I didn't mind. Car journeys were always a bit awkward._

_I found my classroom in no time, and a warm teacher introduced me to the class. A blonde girl sat down near the back waved me over, so I obliged._

"_My name's Rose Tyler," introduced the girl. "What's yours?"_

A flicker of a smile latched onto my face. One of my only good memories: meeting Rose Tyler for the first time.

"_Ava's grades have never been sky high, but they are seriously slipping below average." the concerned teacher said, showing my parents a depleting graph of my Year Nine SAT results. _

"_She really is nothing like her brother." my mum growled, the anger becoming ever-present in her voice._

_I didn't even want to think what was in store for me when I got home._

"_Maybe," the teacher gestured towards me, "You could give Ava a little extra support at home? Go through her homework with her, just to check she's going about it in the right way?"_

_My mother stared at the test results in silence for a second longer, before grabbing my arm and dragging me out of the building._

"_You're such a disappointment, Ava Jackson." my mother hissed, finally dropping my arm at the end of the road. "You're a failure. You couldn't be like your brother, could you? You couldn't just be the child I wanted you to be, could you?" _

_My mother stared at me for a moment longer before getting into the car and driving away._

"You're such a disappointment, Ava Jackson," I mimicked. A line I'd heard so many times.

_Sixteen years old- and bin bags of my stuff lined the hallway._

_My mother had got her GCSE results._

"_GET OUT!" my mother yelled- angrier than I had ever seen her before. "JUST GET OUT!"_

_My brother was standing in the hall way too; but was unable to look me in the eyes. _

_I opened her mouth to speak, but my mother silenced me._

"_All I've done for you and you get THIS?" my mother screeched, throwing a brown envelope at my feet. "I've been right all along about you Ava. You were going to amount to nothing. I could tell that from the first day."_

_Wait… All I've done for you? That wasn't right._

"_You haven't done anything for me," I spat, daring to contradict, "So don't you dare say that, mother. You've done nothing for me- so you can forget that shit."_

_I thought my mother was about to explode. She snarled, approaching me._

_She raised her hand…_

My eyes snapped open. I quickly backed away, so the Doctor could see no more. I was panting rapidly and tried but failed to divert a stray tear.

The Doctor looked guilty- like he shouldn't have made me relive those memories at all.

"Shh…" he hushed me, gripping me into a tight hug. I comforted him, so now he had a duty to comfort me. "I'm so sorry, Ava… It's over now. It's in the past."

Now I knew I was safe, I let the bitter tears fall freely- soaking the Doctor's shirt.

The Doctor pressed a finger under my chin, and wiped the tears away with his thumb. "Look, Ava, you understood why I had to do that, right?"

I half nodded, suppressing a sob.

"And you know now," the Doctor started, "That will never happen to you again. I will never turn my back on you. Ever."


	11. Running

**A/N: I lied again. This is my favourite chapter. If you want to review, tell me what you think about at the end- I wasn't planning on doing this twist, but I got the idea in an earlier review from Azreael! Hope you enjoy x**

**Disclaimer: GUESS WHAT! I DON'T OWN DOCTOR WHO! I bet you didn't know that.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 02/06/12***

* * *

The Doctor pressed a light kiss on my forehead and withdrew from the hug. He smiled warmly at me and tried to encourage a smile back on my face, and the remnants of one managed to tug at the corners of my mouth. I quickly cleared my face from any tears with the edge of the rainbow scarf and took a deep breath, aiming to compose myself.

"Sorry," I muttered, fidgeting with the loose end of the scarf. "Usually… Those don't really affect me. My memories, I mean. I've grown to forget about them."

"No. It's me who should be apologising." the Doctor insisted, "I don't normally go through people's memories, Ava. It's wrong- like reading someone's diary. But you, I couldn't resist. You act so tough on the outside, so invincible. I just had to delve underneath your hard exterior and shuffle through the more delicate things."

I looked up, grabbing the Doctor's sincere eyes. "It looks like we've both got something in common, then." she paused. "I saw inside your head too…"

The Doctor's eyes snapped wide open. "What, Ava? What exactly did you see?"

I glanced back at 'The Core'. For some reason, it didn't look as beautiful anymore. All that glittering was beginning to give me a headache and my giddiness from earlier had totally dissipated. It really is funny how you can go from being so overly ecstatic to deadly serious in a matter of minutes.

When I failed to reply, the Doctor leaned forward and gripped my shoulders. To me, he looked almost desperate. Frighteningly desperate. "_What did you see?"_

I cupped his cheek in my palm, his skin surprisingly cool. "Your parents sent you away when you were young. Too young- barely even a child. They didn't want you."

The Doctor kept his grip crushingly tight on my shoulders.

I caressed his skin gently with my thumb. "You were so lonely, Doctor. So, so lonely. And now… Even more alone. The last of your kind. The rest of your race perished, along with your whole planet…"

The Doctor's eyes flashed with pain and remembrance. I could see the fires burning right in the back of his eyes, from the last day of the war that he'd fought in. The war that tore his whole life apart.

"But Doctor," I began to say, to the Doctor's surprise. "You don't need to think about them anymore. Because all that pain, all that suffering, was only part of what I saw."

The Doctor was intrigued. "What else did you see?"

"I saw how many people love you." I bit my lip to hide my smile. "Jesus, Doctor, there's a whole load of girls milling around your brain; and all of them love you just as much as the last. They cherished you; they would do anything for you, even now. You get around a bit don't you?"

The Doctor's grip instantly loosened when my mood had lifted. "Well. Some would call me a bit of a silver fox."

I clicked my tongue, "Despite your old age, you still manage to get the ladies. Does Rose know how many girls you've been with in the past?"

The Doctor narrowed his eyes. He pointed his finger at me disapprovingly. "Don't get those sort of ideas into your head, Ava Jackson. I liked none of them like that. None of them. They were just friends."

I grinned and raised an eyebrow. "Are you sure about that, Doctor? Are you really, really, sure?"

The Doctor suddenly looked really uncomfortable and started rubbing his hands down his legs and refused to make eye contact. "Yes. Of course I'm sure. You should know that- you were the one who managed to get inside my head. Somehow. Don't know how. Wish I knew how. Because if I end up doing that again, which I probably won't in a hurry, chances are that I won't want them taking a nosey through my private thoughts."

I sniggered. "That's kind of two-faced, don't you think? And anyway, I didn't look through your thoughts on purpose. It kind of just _happened."_

"The mind is a very delicate thing." the Doctor said. "So very, very delicate. One pull on the wrong thread and the whole thing can just fall apart. Like a really badly made Christmas jumper." the Doctor shuddered. "I really badly made Christmas jumper made out of that horrible itchy wool. Maybe, when I looked into your mind, you seeing my memories was a sort of side-effect. Human minds are a lot more fragile than Time Lord minds- they're not as, well, full. My brain, for example, is brimming with nine-hundred years of memories; yours only nineteen. Sometimes the pressure is too much… Oh, hello!"

I shot the Doctor a puzzled look and I noticed that the Doctor was looking behind us. I snapped my neck backwards so I could see over my shoulder.

Uh oh. This didn't look good.

A group of The Glass Planet's scary security guards were pacing right towards us, each one of them brandishing a very big and dangerous looking sword.

The Doctor stood up and greeted them with a grin and a wave. "Hello there!"

"Well," I muttered as I realised that the guards did _not _look happy. "If you're in the wrong, do it strong."

I shot up next to my new companion and I too offered them a wave and erratic grin. "Yes! Hello!"

"Might I say, before you think about using those big swordy things," the Doctor began gesturing wildly, "That this planet truly is _amazing! _Isn't it A… Empress Cordell of the Muluminan Peninsula? Wouldn't you give it a ten out of ten?"

I nodded and gave a little spontaneous round of applause. "I would go as far as to say eleven out of ten, Emperor Finchley of the Muluminan Peninsula."

"You know what I am going to do?" the Doctor questioned, the guards staring back at him, totally deadpan. "When I get back home to the Muluminan Peninsula, I am going to tell all my people just how great this place is. Honestly, this time tomorrow, you'll have flocks of Muluminan… Um… Peninsulans… Yeah, Peninsulans, raging to get to these doors. Believe me when I say that. Oh, they do love their leaders at the Muluminan Peninsula, don't they, Empress?"

"Oh yes," I swore, beginning to enjoy the whole lying-through-my-teeth-to-some-potentially-deadly-guards thing. "They hang on our every word, they do. Every word."

"Now, guys, do you mind putting those big swordy things down?" the Doctor smiled, miming putting a weapon on the floor. "Because, you know, I'm beginning to feel rather threatened by them. And if my people find out about this, they will not be happy. Oh no. They will be like 'No! I will not go to the Glass Planet, Emperor! Not if they carry big swordy things!'"

I nodded sincerely, trying to ignore the fact that the guards were looking more and more furious by the second. "Us Muluminan Peninsulans are very trigger-unhappy, if you get my drift."

The Doctor snapped his fingers. "Very trigger-unhappy! That's it. We're all peace loving, tree hugging…"

But he was cut short by one of the guards roaring, "SHUT UP!"

The Doctor pulled a face. "Oh. This does not sound good."

I stifled a giggle.

"Both of you have abused the terms of service of The Glass Planet." one of the guards said, one nearer the back of the group of six, "You are neither of aristocratic origin or from the Muluminan Peninsula."

The Doctor gasped quite comically, "What? No! Yes we are! I think you'll find that I've ruled…"

Two very small, red-skinned, wrinkly (Golem like, I thought. You know. From Star Wars. Or Lord of the Rings. Or… Never mind) emerged from the back of the group of guards. Both of them were fuming- whether they were that red skinned naturally, I had no clue.

I wanted to laugh so badly. But now was not the time.

"No, we are the Emperor and Empress of the Muluminan Peninsula!" one of them screeched- both of them looked the same, so it was impossible to tell which was the Emperor or the Empress.

"What?" howled the Doctor, "How? When? The Muluminan Peninsula is over thirty billion light years away!"

"We've been travelling for hundreds of years to get here!" the other one screeched then turned to the guard. "Execute these impostors!"

"Ah. Well. Worth a try, I suppose." the Doctor gave a quick shrug.

The guards growled and began to approach closer, their swords positioned correctly.

"Okay, Ava," the Doctor grinned, slipping his hand in mine. "This is where the fun starts. Run!"

I grinned back as our hands intertwined, only the thudding of the guards running behind us coming between our laughter.

-x-

The sun was shining, bright and crisp, above the Powell Estate. The temperature was a little cold, but enough for me to survive in just a T Shirt. The clouds were just thin wisps up in the blue sky- this really was as good as it got around East London. The grass and the plants dotted in and around the Estate were a voluptuous green, and everywhere looked generally as cheerful as a rundown council estate could.

Wait a second. Something about this wasn't right.

"Are you tired?" the Doctor asked, distracting me from looking at my surroundings. "I mean, we've just ran. A lot. And you haven't slept."

I thought about this for a second. "No. How can I possibly sleep after _that? _I'm worried that if I close my eyes, I might miss something."

I didn't wait to hear the Doctor's reply.

It was snowing when we left.

And if this, presumably, was the morning after I had left… The snow should still be here. It shouldn't be sunny. It shouldn't even be vaguely warm.

I gulped. "Doctor… Just what time is it now? What day is it?"

The Doctor's brow creased. "It's the 26th of… Oh."

All the colour drained from my face. "Oh what?"

It was the Doctor's turn to look anxious. "The 26th of April."

This information took a few seconds for me to register it.

I clamped my hand over my mouth. "Oh my god! Shit! We're four months late! I thought you said you're driving was accurate!"

"It is!" the Doctor exclaimed in his defence, "Usually!"

"Oh," I scoffed, "And I bet that's what you said when you brought Rose back a year bloody late."

The Doctor didn't need to answer, as we heard the footsteps of someone running down the Estate.

I almost died when I saw who it was.

Rose.


	12. Apologies Don't Cut It

**A/N: I would like to take this moment to say just how beautiful Rose and the Doctor's departure was at the end of Doomsday. The writers at Doctor Who are just so talented- I know lot's of people didn't want Rose and the Doctor's journey to end, but Billie had to leave at some point and that was the absolutely perfect way to do it. I really love heart-breaking ends, I do. It makes Doctor Who that bit more real.**

**That was rather heartfelt, wasn't it? So is this chapter. I've wrote a one-shot about the four months the Doctor and Ava were gone called 'Betrayal'- you might want to check that out if you want to hear Rose's side of the story. Thank you for all the reviews so far, and keep reviewing if you can!**

**Disclaimer: I own a vast number of Doctor Who figures, books and all the 'new' series' on DVD, but not the actual show. If I did, I would of forced Billie Piper into staying in Doctor Who FOREVER. And I wouldn't have let David Tennant regenerate. But hey, I don't own it, therefore that didn't happen. Enjoy!**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 02/06/12***

* * *

I could feel my own heart slowly breaking inside my chest. The look on my best friend's face was so distraught, so unbearably distressed- I couldn't believe that it was _me _who had made her look that way. Best friends should never do that to each other; yet, here I was, watching something that shouldn't have ever happened in our relationship _happen. _

Rose didn't move from where she was standing for a long while. All she did was stand there, her big brown eyes filled with four months of heartbreak and betrayal. I also noticed that she'd had a haircut. Her long, blonde locks were now shoulder length and a whiter blonde than they were previously.

I really wanted to make eye contact with the Doctor to see if he knew a way out of this; but I couldn't bring myself to do it. And the Doctor couldn't help me with this- no-one could. This problem was up to me and me alone. I was the one who ran off with the Doctor without telling her, and nothing could change that now. Although it was the Doctor's false time estimations that got me in this situation I wasn't going to divert _all _the blame onto him.

But, of course, he wasn't going to get away scot-free. Fifty percent of the blame lay on his shoulders- I wasn't going to deny that.

"Rose," the Doctor barely whispered from beside me. It was clear he didn't know what to say either. Just how can you apologise to your best friend for abandoning them for four months without even saying goodbye?

Rose blinked back at him. Even from a distance, I could see how much she was trembling. Her mouth was unable to stay in a straight line; it was quivering and wavering like she could burst into tears at any second.

It didn't surprise me when Rose turned and skidded round the corner without a second glance.

The overwhelming pressure of reality was really beginning to dawn on me. That _I _had caused this. That now, potentially, my best friend would never be able to trust me again.

The Doctor began to race off after her, though I could sense that once he had found her he wouldn't have a clue on what to say. I decided that maybe the Doctor wasn't the best person to chase after her if he was going to blather on.

Though I thought that I wasn't going to be the first person who Rose would want to see either: but I sort of knew what Rose was feeling. After all, she did go off with the Doctor for a year without even telling anyone, and I was absolutely distraught after that. When Mickey was accused of being a murder suspect… God, it was horrible.

But that wasn't the same as this. I didn't know the Doctor then. It wasn't like Rose had run off with the man I loved.

I reached out and gripped the Doctor's coat so he could go no further, causing him to stumble a little on some gravel.

"Let me go," I sighed, letting go. "It's me who caused this mess, so I have to fix it."

The Doctor tutted, shaking his head. "It was me who got the date wrong. Don't blame this all on yourself, Ava."

Despite the situation, I chuckled. "Don't worry. I'm not. It's just that if I hadn't of turned up on Christmas Day, this wouldn't have happened. And Rose and I, we've been friends for so long… It's sort of my job to go and sort it out."

The Doctor ran a hand through his hair exasperatedly. "Oh God. I can't believe I let my timing go slack for the second time… I'm a Time Lord. I'm supposed to be at least half decent at driving my own ship."

I shrugged. "There isn't much we can do now but try and sort it out. Trust me, the situations a lot worse for me than it is for you. I'll be lucky if Rose will ever look me straight in the eye again."

The Doctor pulled a face. "I suppose I'll have to go and face the wrath of Jackie Tyler then, eh? That woman is protective at the best at times… I might need to go in there wearing a hard hat or some other protective clothing."

I offered the Doctor one last small smile before shoving my hands deep into my pockets. The Doctor rubbed his nose and walked in the opposite direction, to the entrance of the Estate where the Tyler's flat was situated.

I waited until he had disappeared through the front door before turning back away from the Estate, to somewhere I knew Rose would be.

-x-

The wind had picked up, whipping my brunette curls round my face. I had to hold onto my new trilby hat so it didn't get carried off in the breeze. I tugged the rainbow scarf tighter around my neck in hope that it would somehow generate some warmth.

I was right about where Rose was. She was somewhere we always ran off too when we were kids, just to get away from it all. Somewhere peaceful and quiet because no-one ever, ever used it anymore. It was just too old.

The little park.

The term 'park' was used very loosely- if you considered two swings and a broken seesaw a park, then yeah, it was a park. It used to be bigger than that, with a slide and a climbing frame and those little rocking horse things on the big springs. But the Council had taken them away a few years ago now because they were, for some reason, 'safety hazards'.

They _weren't _safety hazards for a long time, but then this kid fell off the climbing frame and landed head first into the slide and got severe brain damage. That made the park unfit for use and the Council took away the necessary parts. In a way, me and Rose were thankful for that boy and his clumsiness, because without him the park would still be busy and packed with people. Without that boy, we wouldn't have had the place we so often went to to cool off and to generally chat about things.

I could hear the park before I saw it. The swings were so old now, so the joints at the top had rusted over and created a deafening squeaky noise. Whenever anyone was on one of the swings that gratey noise occurred, and you began to think whether those swings were becoming a 'safety hazard' too. The squeaky noise was squeakier than ever, so I just guessed that Rose was sat there by herself.

I took a deep breath and headed down the path. I tried to push open the little metal gate at the entrance with my fist, but it refused to open enough for me to get through. Instead I had to latch my trainers onto the bars and launch myself over.

I landed on the ground with a thud and got a streak of mud down my trousers, but the state my clothes (well, the Doctor's clothes, but they were pretty much mine now. Hopefully.) were in was the least of my problems.

Rose didn't look up as I stumbled over to the swings and sat down next to her. Her head remained low so I couldn't see her face.

I sighed as I plonked down on the leather seat. "I… Ugh, Rose… I…"

Rose again failed to look up- but I couldn't blame her for it. Her fists were gripping so tight round the bars of the swings her knuckles were a bright white.

I started again and tried not to stammer, gently pushing myself back and forwards on the swings. "Look, Rose, I'm so, so sorry."

Rose inhaled deeply and brought her head up to vision.

Her face was streaked with tears. Four months of tears she finally felt she could shed.

"Sometimes, Ava, sorry doesn't quite cut it."


	13. Honesty

**A/N: Thank you for the reviews, please make one for this chapter if you can! Hope you enjoy this chapter as much as the last... This is one of my faves, and the adventures start soon. Hannah x**

**Disclaimer: I do own Doctor Who. Wait, sorry, typo... That's supposed to say I _don't _own Doctor Who. Man.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 02/06/12***

* * *

I blinked back at my best friend; unsure on what words should come out of my mouth next. I'd never ever been in a situation when my best friend was so upset and cold because of me. Was this what the Doctor did? Tore apart friendships and broke supposedly unbreakable bonds? Before the Doctor came into my life –Rose's life, even- everything was going well. Well, not 'well' exactly. But as 'well' as it could get, as far as things went. Our lives were so much more boring and uneventful, but at least we had each other.

But now… Everything between us was potentially over. All those teary phone-calls, giggly sleepovers, hushed secrets. Because of one stupid mistake which should never have happened.

Silence took over us, apart from the slight squeaking of the swings and the occasional gust of wind rattling against the gate. The silence was almost comforting for a few moments, but it was gradually becoming more and more awkward. I felt like I needed to introduce an ice-breaker to at least get us talking again.

"The Doctor is talking to your mum." I said, pushing a strand of my hair which had become loose behind my ear. "He was debating on whether to wear a helmet or not."

A small sense of relief blessed me as a flicker of a smile projected itself onto Rose's tear-stained face. It quickly dissipated again, but at least it was lurking around somewhere. "Currently, for mum, the Doctor is enemy number one. Not that he's ever been on the top of her friend's list or anything, but she hates him more than she did before."

I sighed, covering my face with my hands. "Oh, God, Rose… I honestly didn't mean for it to end like this. One trip, he said. He even promised to return me after that. I just assumed that he'd drop me off the morning afterwards!"

Rose inhaled the bitter April air and pinched the bridge of her nose. "I know, Ava. Trust me, I do. He brought me home a year late, remember? But that wasn't the same as this."

I removed my hands from my face so I could see Rose's expression. "I know! We were only supposed to be out while you were asleep, it just got out of hand!"

"And that's supposed to make me feel better, is it?" Rose interrogated while she wiped away her tears with the sleeve of her hoodie. "Going on a trip without me, I can understand. But going away on a trip while I was asleep and not letting me know at all? That, Ava, is what really hurts. That you felt the need to go off gallivanting through time and space without telling me _anything. _Even after all I told you!"

"I know, Rose, it was inexcusable. I wouldn't even forgive myself- I _can't _even forgive myself. But you have to believe me when I say nothing happened. I promise. We went on a trip, that was all." I said, but I felt I was just burying myself into a deeper hole.

"That morning, after you left, I went down to where the TARDIS was parked as I couldn't find either you or the Doctor anywhere," Rose began, "And when I discovered that that big blue box wasn't there, my heart began to crack like glass." Rose paused. "The Doctor has never left me behind, ever, unless he's had a reason- like making sure I'm safe or keeping me away from harm. However much I disagree about those reasons."

I looked away as Rose continued.

"But that- that was different. For the first time the Doctor had left me behind _intentionally. _And not only that, he'd left with my best friend. Have you any idea how that made me feel?"

I shook my head solemnly.

"Well, Ava, it didn't make me feel great. Put it that way. It made me feel like I wasn't enough for him." Rose choked back another sob.

My ears pricked at Rose's last sentence. _Rose honestly felt like she wasn't good enough for the Doctor? _She was all he ever talked about! And thought about.

I had looked into the deep depths of the Doctor's mind; his solitary childhood, the destruction of his home planet, the terrible war that completely destroyed his life, and the many, many adventures he'd had in-between. The Doctor's feelings were forever changing and forever in flux, but one thought remained a constant. Always there and always the most vital one.

That thought was Rose Tyler.

I leaped off the swing and landed on my feet, grabbing the swing Rose was sitting on with force so that it could no longer move.

"Please can you just go, Ava?" Rose asked as politely as she could. "I kind of want to be alone. It's funny, isn't it? I've spent four months waiting for you to return and now you're here I don't really want to see you at all."

But I wasn't leaving. Oh no. Not until Rose got the full picture. After that, if she still didn't want to see me, then I would go. "Wait. Rose. Just here me out, ok?"

Rose rolled her eyes. "I'd thought we'd said enough."

I ignored her. "You honestly believe the Doctor doesn't think you're good enough, eh, Rose?"

Rose sighed, remaining silent for a while before replying. "No. I didn't at first. Ava, he made me feel amazing. He made me feel like I was the most important person in the world. He made me feel like no other person has ever made me feel… But then _you _came along. You were new. You were someone else he could show off to; because, trust me, the Doctor likes nothing more than to show off the universe."

I laughed slightly as I remembered the Doctor stumbling at the TARDIS console, but I quickly changed the chuckle into a cough. "I'm just a fad, Rose. He took me on a trip because he felt sorry for me." I ignored the fact that that Captain Jack guy had pretty much confirmed that I was going to be an important part of the Doctor's future. "But you, you're like no other girl he's met before. He never shuts up about you, Rose. So don't you dare think that you're not good enough."

Rose's face was softening from anger and despair to a more general expression. She stood up off the swing so that she was opposite me and dusted down her trouser knees.

Then she enveloped me in a long overdue hug.

And I felt more than happy to hug my best friend back. As I'd learnt at The Glass Planet, a hug makes everything look so much brighter. Even if you are already looking at a giant star meanwhile.

Rose nuzzled her face into the wool of my scarf. I could feel my best friend sobbing a little, so I squeezed her tighter. I decided against shedding any tears as I'd cried enough today, even though I was on the verge.

"A couple of weeks in, I was beginning to think that something terrible had happened to you two," Rose whispered into my shoulder. "I know with time travel and stuff the Doctor can't always get the times right, but I thought you might have died somewhere. Some alien planet, somewhere completely foreign to you."

I rubbed my hand gently on the back of Rose's head. "Me? Die? Never!"

Rose chuckled faintly through her tears. "No, but seriously. The amount of times I've almost died with the Doctor is so, so scary. When it's you put in those situations it's different. But to think that it's someone you love so much at risk… That's when you really begin to worry."

An overwhelming burst of guilt sparked inside of my gut.

"As the days built up, more and more images of you or the Doctor dying alone flashed in my mind. But there was nothing I could do. I just had to sit at home and wait for either one of you to return somehow. And trust me, that's not what I wanted to do. I wanted to get to you both. But I couldn't. I was honestly beginning to think that the two people I trusted most in the world were gone for good."

"I'm so, so sorry Rose," I whimpered, taking in the scent of Rose's hoodie as I buried my face into my friend's shoulder.

Rose shook her head. "No. I'm sorry. I was so cold before. I guess I just felt betrayed. But I understand."

_Betrayed. _"If it's easier, I won't travel with you and the Doctor. I'll stay here. I really don't want to cause anymore grief between us."

Rose grinned. "Don't be stupid! I want you where I can keep an eye on you."

I grinned back as I withdrew from our embrace. "Well, okay, if it's fine with you."

Rose snaked her arm through mine and rested her chin on my shoulder. "I've missed you so much, Ava. I tried to convince myself that you weren't worth it, but how could I? We've been best friends for so long- not even a mad, stupid Time Lord can come between us."

I laughed. I was just so happy that Rose wasn't unbearably angry with me anymore. That I understood. "Yep."

Rose skipped over to the fence and jumped over, like a little kid. "Now, I want to see that mad, stupid Time Lord. I've got some questions I need to ask him. Like why he kidnapped my best friend from me for four months."

She then swiftly ran down the pathway and round the corner to the Estate, too fast for me to catch up. All that running she must've done with the Doctor must've made her that bit faster.

I stood in her shadow for a moment longer, before leaping over the rusty gate myself.

I really did have an amazing, brilliant, incredible, out-of-this-world best friend.


	14. Reunion

**A/N: I was having severe writers block with this chapter, hopefully it's not too bad. If you think it is, I don't mind if you tell me- I might rewrite this chapter tomorrow. So, what do you think?**

**Disclaimer: Don't own. Can't be bothered to write a nifty disclaimer.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 02/06/12***

* * *

I finally caught up with Rose just as she was entering the Powell Estate. Just as we were going through the doors, a thought developed in my mind.

What exactly had happened to _my _flat in the four months I had been away? Had the hole expanded and just destroyed my whole flat? Or had someone fixed it in the time I'd spent with the Doctor? God, I hoped it was the second one. Otherwise, I really was stumped. If the hole was still there, were all my things ruined? All my clothes? Because it must of torrentially rained a few times between the end of December and the end of April.

I gulped. I wasn't even sure I wanted to go back to my flat if that's what I'd be welcomed to. And I didn't even want to imagine the bills I had to pay…

Rose glanced back at me, noticing the sudden look of worry on my face. "What's wrong, Ave?"

I shook my head, forcing a smile onto my face. I didn't want to look miserable just after Rose had forgiven me for doing something so unforgiveable. "It's nothing."

Rose narrowed her eyes, but she left it. She knew when to not ask questions. "We better go upstairs, then. Try and drag mum away from the Doctor."

I bit my lip. "Is Jackie angry at me, too?"

I really didn't want to have Jackie against me. She was simply terrifying when angry- and she wouldn't hesitate to give me a good telling off if I'd in anyway upset her daughter. Even when Rose and I were both little and we'd fallen out, Jackie would always step in to defend her daughter.

Rose shrugged. "I really don't know, Ava. It was more the Doctor she went on about. She knows you wouldn't do something like this on purpose. The Doctor, however, is capable of anything in mum's eyes."

I felt a little relieved by Rose's nonchalant tone. This hopefully signified that Jackie hadn't being shouting insults along with my name across the past four months.

_Four months._ I was still getting my head round that. It had been four months since Rose had seen mw, but barely ten hours since I had seen Rose.

Time travel was so confusing. It really altered your perspectives.

And it proved that just about anything was possible.

-x-

There were plenty of muffled curses and high-pitched screeches coming from inside of the Tyler's flat. I winced as I heard Jackie's voice, obviously higher than the male one that accompanied it, shouting. What she was shouting, I couldn't tell. But it probably wasn't nice, friendly things. I'd be pretty surprised if Jackie was shouting nice, friendly things to the man, according to Rose, she despised.

Rose grimaced as she wrapped her hand round the door handle. "This is probably not going to be a pretty sight."

I nodded in agreement. "Let's just open it and get it over with. Maybe the Doctor was smart and put a helmet on or something."

Rose half-smiled at the thought, before pushing open the door and running into the living area.

I was close behind, sort of expecting the walls to be coated in the Doctor's blood. Gladly, they weren't. The walls were how I remembered them. Four months wouldn't make them look older, would it? Because now I thought about it, they kind of did need a lick of paint.

I dragged my eyes away from the wall and back to the Doctor, who was struggling on the floor underneath a very, very (emphasising on the very) angry Jackie Tyler. She was positively fuming.

Rose immediately rushed over to her mum and attempted to pull the woman off her friend. "Mum, honestly, stop it!"

Between the Doctor's curses of 'Ow!' and 'Stop it, Jackie!' Jackie was slapping the Doctor hard round the cheeks, to an extent where the Doctor's face was really redder than it should probably be.

"ROSE! AVA!" the Doctor attempted to shout over the top, "HELP ME!"

Rose beckoned me over and I obliged, pulling on the shoulders of Jackie Tyler until she'd been completely prised away from the Time Lord.

As soon as he'd been set free, the Doctor lay back on the floor and started panting rapidly. His chest was going up and down in the time of his primary heartbeat. "Thank… You…"

Jackie's face was still furious and she looked like she was about to say something, when she noticed that I was in the room with her. Her features almost immediately softened with realisation.

She grabbed me into a big, Jackie hug. "Oh God Ava, we've missed you!" she started to ramble at a hundred miles an hour, "I knew this wasn't your fault, you know! I knew it was going to come down to him somehow. Him and his stupid time machine."

"Oy!" the Doctor retorted, "My time machine is _not _stupid!"

"You say that," snorted Jackie, "But you never seem to bring anyone back at the right time! That is what I call stupid."

Woah. Jackie really told it how it was. That was one of the main reasons I loved her so much.

I squeezed Jackie tighter. "I'm sorry, Jackie."

"You, Ava, have nothing to be sorry for." Jackie insisted as I let go, cocking her thumb in the direction of the Time Lord. "It's him who should be apologising."

"And I have!" the Doctor was trying but failing to defend himself. Nothing could ever break through to Jackie. "Hundreds of times! I've done nothing but apologise since I came through that door, and all you've done is hurt me!"

Rose laughed a little at this, pulling him up with her hand. "You know what happens, Doctor. You do something mum disagrees with, she'll slap you."

The Doctor pressed his hands against the skin on his face, wincing at how tender the flesh still was. "I can still feel the bruise from the last time."

Rose pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear, smiling. "I've missed you, Doctor. Despite you leaving me behind and running off with my best friend, I've really missed you."

"I didn't run off with Ava," the Doctor said, "I took her on a trip. A trip I really should've taken you on too."

Rose looked into his eyes for a second, before leaping onto his shoulders and wrapping him in a hug. "Don't do that to me again, Doctor. Please."

"Never," the Doctor whispered back, "Never ever. You know I would never leave you behind, Rose Tyler."

Rose pressed her hand against the back of the Doctor's neck. "While you were gone… I got a taste of what life would be like without you, and I hated it. I really hated it. It reminded me of why I never want to leave you."

The Doctor didn't say anything for a couple of moments. "Are you fine with Ava coming with us? Are you definitley sure?"

Rose let go but let her arms rest on his shoulders. "Of course I am, Doctor. She's my best friend. I can't leave her behind, not now."

The Doctor flashed Rose a cheeky grin. "You better pack your bags, then. Next stop, everywhere."

Rose grinned back at him.

She really had missed him. She'd missed the unknown, the unexpected thrills that shuddered down her spine whenever he uttered her name.

And now she had me to share it with too.


	15. A Little Surprise

**A/N: I know I say this almost every chapter, but THIS. IS. THE. BEST. CHAPTER. Honestly, I've never been so proud of a piece of writing. It's really got me in the mood for this story, and I can't wait to continue! And for all those Jack Harkness fans, there's a little (and I mean little) twist for Ava and Jack in this chapter... Ooh!**

**And, oh my gallifrey, I can't believe the incredible response this story has got! I had no idea this story would become this popular... Thank you to those incredible reviewers (Azreael, JainaZekk621, Cetacea-of-Time, Lexy Summers, Frank and SarBrook to name a few) who nearly always manage to spare some time to review my story! If you want to, don't hesitate to write one for this chapter. I've also got forty-nine story alerts for this chapter- whoever is the fiftieth will get a special mention next time! **

**Disclaimer: Don't own Doctor Who, just the fabulous Ava Jackson.**

***CHAPTER REWRITTEN 10/06/12***

* * *

I slipped my house-key into the lock, flinching as the rust inside creaked creating quite a distressing noise. It had always done that, and the more times it occurred the more annoyed I got. I had been planning on changing the locks a while back, but I'd had more vital things on my mind. Like wondering if I had enough money to pay the water bill or her TV licence.

It took me a couple of pushes for the door to finally open, and to my surprise I wasn't wading in an inch of rainwater. My flat was… Actually, well, it was _clean. _Cleaner than how I'd left it. How exactly did that work? The last time I was here was definitley four months ago, right?

Utterly confused, I pushed the front door closed and wandered into my kitchen/living room. I threw my hat on the kitchen table as well as my keys, surveying the small room carefully. For a start, the kitchen floor was practically shining it was so clean- I couldn't remember the last time I'd washed the floor. Yeah, that sounded pretty filthy, but I never was in the kitchen that much anyway. The cupboards were also completely dust-free, and when I had flung open one of the wooden doors I discovered that they had been re-stocked with long-life food. Pasta, rice, cereal. That sort of thing. There was also a fruit bowl which had taken pride of place in the centre of my table, brimming with apples and pears and grapes. That were still fresh and not rotting away. They couldn't have been more than a day old at the most.

Now, that was weird. It was like someone had broken into my house and done _nice _things while I'd been gone. The opposite of burglars. But how exactly did anyone get in? I had one of the two house keys in my pocket, the other one was in one of the kitchen drawers. There was a third one, but that belonged to the landlord. And why would the landlord ever go and do nice things for a person who rarely paid their rent on time?

Shit. Rent. The landlord wasn't going to be happy that I had missed four months' worth of rent. I was surprised that I hadn't got very angry letters through my door; but looking back at the doormat, there was no post to be seen. Scanning the table top I found a sheet of paper- as I read over it, I discovered the landlord had sent his personal thanks for paying three years' worth of rent in advance.

I blinked, re-reading the letter once, twice, three more times. I'd done _what? _I flipped the page over and studied the signature at the bottom- yep, that was definitley the landlord's handwriting. It was legit, alright. Legit if I _had _paid three years in advance, which I had definitley hadn't. Heck, I'd never even seen that much money in my life, never mind letting my landlord pocket it!

I shook my head and tossed the letter back onto the counter. I'd have to inquire to the landlord about it later; it must've been a mistake. Anyway, who the heck opened that letter? Stuff like that was confidential.

I glanced over at the living room; everything was pretty much the same, apart from the sofa cushion's being perfectly framed in the centre of the couch and the coffee table was free from pot-noodle cartons and coke cans. My bookshelf was also tidier- instead of all my books being piled up on the top, they were all lined up on the shelves separate from my videos and DVD's.

Whoever had been in here had made sure they had done a thorough job. I didn't know whether to be pleased or appalled by that. This was all very, very strange.

I dragged myself away from my unnaturally neat living area and flipped open the door to the hallway, where my bathroom and bedroom were situated. Where, four months ago, there was a great gaping hole in the ceiling, now was completely plastered over. It looked like the hole had never been there in the first place- it was perfect. No-one ever made that good a job at plastering, never mind the crappy maintenance guy who fixed things on the Estate.

My hall was also covered in a new, bold, blue carpet which matched my pale blue walls. It was almost TARDIS blue- you know, that beautiful blue that once you see it, you can't find it on paint wheels at DIY shops. Yet, here it was, over my hallway floor.

This was just getting more and more mad by the second. First, someone had cleaned my flat for me. Second, they had gone out food shopping and re-stocked my cupboards. Four… Wait, third, they had paid three bloody years' worth of rent in advance. Fourth, they had fixed my roof. Fifth, they had completely redone my carpet… Who would do that? Why? At first I was thinking maybe Jackie or Rose, but no way would they have been able to pay off three years' rent for me. They could barely pay off their own, never mind mine.

So who exactly was it?

I twisted the door handle on my bedroom door and shoved it open, revealing the place where I had slept for the past few years. But, like I anticipated, someone else had been in here before me. The sheets were clean and there were a selection of toiletries on my dressing table; as well as a massive rucksack filled with clothes at the bottom of the bed. Noticing there was a florescent yellow sticky note on the opening flap of the bag; I ripped it off immediately and began to read it.

It was covered in an incredibly neat script. Neater than any I had seen before, so I definitley didn't recognise it.

_Welcome home, Ava Jackson. You can thank me later- Jack x_

I couldn't help but let a small smile creep up my face. Jack. As in Captain Jack Harkness. The strange, American man I had met at The Glass Planet- the man who knew me, but I didn't know him.

I jumped onto my bed, the sticky note still in my grip. Who exactly was Captain Jack Harkness? Why would he do this for me, before I knew him the way he knew me?

Blimey. Time travelling was confusing.

And when was I finally going to meet this Jack for the first time, well, properly? When he didn't know me yet? As it really should be?

I let my head fall back on the pillow. A whole day without sleep was really becoming to creep back up on me, so I let myself drift off; my head filled with impossible thoughts…

-x-

I hoisted my rucksack further up my back, running across the centre of the Powell Estate. I'd quickly thrown on my trilby hat and pulled a brush through my hair on my way down the stairs. Apart from cleaning my teeth, washing my hair and showering, I didn't really make much of an effort with my appearance. Occasionally I'd coat a bit of mascara of my eyelashes, but I'd never seen the point in making yourself up if you had no-one to make yourself up for.

The TARDIS was standing majestically in the middle of the Estate; Rose, Jackie and Mickey standing outside its doors. I grinned to myself- I couldn't believe that this amazing blue box was going to be my home for however long. Even if this journey I was about to embark on only lasted a few days, at least it would be the most exciting few days I'd ever experience. This time yesterday (or four months ago, depends which perspective you look at) I had no clue what went on outside of England, never mind the whole universe. It was like the Doctor had given me a fridge: instead of a few pot noodles, there were millions of other foods stuffed in there too which I couldn't possibly eat in her life-time. That, I considered, was like travelling in a machine that roamed through time and space.

"Hello," I panted, when I finally reached the group of people I called family. "Sorry, I slept in."

Rose rolled her eyes before grinning. "Typical Ava Jackson. The person who always manages to sleep in, no matter the situation."

I pouted. "Be fair. I have gone through a whole day without sleeping at all."

"Or four months," Mickey shrugged from beside me, "Depends on how you look at it."

"Mickey!" I exclaimed, throwing my arms around him. "Sorry for, uh, disappearing."

Mickey laughed into my shoulder. "Don't worry, Avey. I'm used to it."

I suddenly felt sorry for my friend. Here he was, being left behind by both his 'girlfriend' and his best friend, yet he didn't show how deflated he actually felt. "We'll be back before you know it, Mick."

Mickey shook his head as retracted from the short hug. "Take care of yourself, Ava. Seriously. That Doctor, he's dangerous."

I smiled, pressing my hands on his shoulder. "I've always took care of myself. It's not going to change now."

Mickey nodded solemnly as I turned my attentions to Jackie.

"Have you got everything?" Jackie asked both her daughter and me.

"We've got everything, don't worry." Rose reassured her, pulling Jackie in for a quick hug.

"Be careful," Jackie warned, looking at Rose and I sternly.

I laughed as I too hugged Jackie. "I will. Promise."

"You got to call Mo about that…" Rose tried to remind her mother, but as usual, Jackie stepped in.

"Oh, never mind Mo," said Jackie, waving her hand to stop herself from getting teary.

"Ava, should we go now?" Rose asked, turning to look into my eyes. When I nodded, Rose kissed her mum on the cheek. "Ok, we're going. Love you!"

Jackie smiled sadly. "I love you."

Rose smiled back, trying to force some reassurance into her mum. "Love you, love you…"

Rose then hovered over to Mickey, who was standing still with his hands shoved in his pockets. Rose stood still for a moment, before planting a small kiss on his cheek.

"I love you," Mickey said. I could tell that in his eyes, he was begging for Rose to say it back. Just this once.

"Bye," Rose said simply, and Mickey's face instantly fell. Rose didn't seem to notice though.

She grabbed my arm and pulled me into the TARDIS with a bright smile on her face and a spring in her step. The goodbyes between me, Mickey and Jackie were all pretty saddening for me, but once you stepped into the TARDIS it was pretty difficult to stay homesick.

While I slung off my backpack and stared with amazement, Rose rushed over to the controls. The Doctor was loomed over the panel and was pressing various buttons and other mechanisms, a proud smile on his face.

I couldn't help but grin as I joined Rose at the column.

"So," Rose did her tongue-between-teeth smile, "Where are we going?"

The Doctor's face looked just as excited. "Further than we've ever gone before."

At that sentence, a bolt of electricity shuddered down my spine.

The TARDIS erupted into life, the engines alive with noise and activity.

I glanced back at the Doctor, who was busy piloting.

This was really happening. It wasn't some incredible dream. It was real.

And this was just the beginning.


	16. Now You're In New New York

**A/N: So we're finally at New Earth! This paragraph has a bit copied from the original transcript from the episode New Earth, so just to let you know I don't own some of dialogue in this. Of course, I own Ava's lines! **

**Thank you so much for the reviews... OMG, I didn't think that I'd ever reach a hundred reviews... Whoever is reviewer one hundred will get a special mention next chapter.**

**Also, as promised, my fiftieth story alerter was... Spirit of the Sky! Thank you so much!**

**Hope you enjoy this chapter :)**

**Disclaimer: Only own Ava. Nowt else, 'right?**

* * *

The first thing Ava established was the fact that it was incredibly windy. Rose was fighting with the material of her blue jacket from flying up in the severe gusts, and the Doctor appeared to be struggling with the long tails of his tan trench coat. Although, Ava did like the way it seemed to blow up like a cape in the breeze…

No. Stop it, Ava Jackson.

Ava grasped her hat tightly with the palm of her hand, and she could barely see due to the rainbow scarf which kept flying up into her face. She managed to grip the ends of the soft wool and throw them behind her, so the material flew behind her in the wind.

Looking upwards, Ava's mouth dropped open- that was soon becoming a permanent fixture, the whole gormless look. But she honestly couldn't help it. Surely it's ok to look completely dense when you've just been offered the whole of time and space with a nine hundred year old alien?

Above, in the cloudless blue sky, amazing vehicles were flying to and from a futuristic city which stood in the distance. It was like your classic sci-fi movie- all towering skyscrapers and glass podiums and incredible silver citadels. It was something that only existed in TV shows and innovative novels; yet, here it was. A city. Brimming with life and death and all that stuff that happened in between.

"It's the year five billion and twenty-three. We're in the galaxy M87 and this…" the Doctor began, his hands gesturing wildly towards the sky and the grass and well, _everything. _"This is New Earth."

"That's just… That's…" Rose just burst out laughing in wonderment.

The Doctor nodded, grinning, his hands stuffed deep in his pockets. "Not bad! Not bad at all."

"Not bad is a bit of an understatement…" Ava gasped, reaching out for the trails that the hundreds of vehicles that zoomed by overhead left behind.

"Maybe. Just a little, tiny bit." the Doctor agreed.

"That's amazing. I'll never get used to this. Never." Rose announced, pushing her hair back with her hands.

"Think of me, Rose." Ava reminded her friend, grinning at her. "This is only my second trip. I'm just getting to grips that time travel is possible, then he brings me to a place where there are flipping flying cars."

"Hey!" the Doctor elbowed his newest companion and shot her a disapproving look. "They're shuttles, not flying cars. Flying cars are _completely _different."

Ava put her hands up in mock surrender. "Sorry. I'll make sure to look in the spotters guide next time."

"I wouldn't worry, Ave. He gets all touchy about his space-age tech." Rose eased her friend. "I still don't know the difference between… Well… I prove my point."

The Doctor looked at the pair with a warning look. "I hope you two aren't going to gang up on me."

Ava shrugged, "We'll just have to wait and see, eh?"

The Doctor frowned at Ava's reply. With one companion, life was easy. But with two _female _companions… Life was going to get a whole lot trickier. What had he let himself into? Nine hundred years of travelling, and he felt like he was going to become succumbed by two teenage, 21st century girls.

Rose bounced up and down on the spot excitedly. "Different ground beneath my feet!"

"Oh…" Ava copied Rose's action. "Yeah! That's pretty weird!"

"Different sky…" Rose wrinkled her nose and her face suddenly scrunched with concentration. "What's that smell?"

The Doctor bent down to the ground and pulled up a few shreds of the turquoise-green grass that grew there. He rubbed them in-between his fingers and sniffed them carefully, before a realised smile crept across his face. He showed them to Rose and she leaned in for a sniff too. "Applegrass."

Rose bit her lip and smiled, pretending to comprehend. "Applegrass…!"

"Yeah, yeah!" the Doctor nodded, before letting the blades flutter to the floor. "You remember, Ava?"

Rose arched her eyebrows. She knew that she had missed something. "Remember what?"

Ava crouched on the floor and ran her hand through the grassy blanket. The closer you got to the ground, the stronger the scent was. "The Doctor and I went to this place called The Glass Planet. Yeah, I told you, right?"

Rose gathered her thoughts together. "Oh yeah. The whole trapped star thing."

The Doctor nudged Rose on the shoulder. "I should take you to The Glass Planet. You'd love it there. But obviously the time before Ava and I went… Because I'm pretty sure the guards and the Emperor and Empress of the Muluminan Peninsula are still out looking for us."

Rose smiled and beckoned Ava to continue with her story.

"Anyway, before I was so rudely interrupted," Ava glanced at the Doctor, who rubbed his nose to disguise the fact that she was looking at him, "We went to this… Well, it was a shake-shack. You know, like that milkshake bar in town, except without the milk. Unless you wanted Star Whale milk. Which I'm glad I didn't get, it looked revolting. I saw a bottle of it under its little name plaque… It had a sort of red tinge to it. And you can understand why I wouldn't want to drink milk with a red tinge to it."

"And you say _I _ramble." the Doctor muttered, louder than really necessary.

Ava narrowed her eyes at him. "This is your fault, Time boy. You've given me ramble-itus." Ava paused for a second, trying to remember where she was in the conversation. "Oh yeah! Well, the Doctor ordered us both Applegrass shakes. And he was going on about how amazing they were and how they were the best things that he's ever tasted… Yet, they weren't that great. They weren't bad, as far as space food went. But they weren't as good as the Doctor made out."

"I ended up drinking all of hers," the Doctor leaned forward, so he was more in line with Rose's ear. "She's fussy, your friend."

"Does it taste better raw?" Ava asked, and before the Doctor could stop her she popped a blade into her mouth.

The Doctor winced. "Um, Ava, applegrass is the fourth most disgusting edible raw plant in the universe…"

Ava chewed the grass carefully, trying to hide the fact that it was the most sickening thing she had ever tasted in her whole life. It tasted nothing like apples… More like socks, rubbish and… Ugh. Soil. Like normal grass. "I have no idea what you're talking about, Doctor."

Rose hid her giggles behind her hand. She knew when Ava didn't like something. And that something was in her mouth right now.

The Doctor raised an eyebrow. "Oh. Right. Of course. I'll just have to explain to the Democratic Botanic Government next time I see them that they've put applegrass in the wrong category. My human friend likes it."

Ava tried incredibly hard not to cough anything up. At this rate, the taste was so repulsive, she debated whether it would just be the grass she spat out in the end. "Yep."

"Despite the supposedly horrible taste," Rose interjected, "It's beautiful."

Rose stared up at the Doctor with her gorgeous wide smile on her face. "Can I just say…" she linked her arm through his, "Travelling with you… I love it."

The Doctor looked down at Rose and bored his eyes into hers. "Me too."

Rose tossed her head back and a laugh erupted from her lips, and the Doctor grinned as he enjoyed watching it. "Come on!"

Ava stood back as their hands intertwined.

They started to run down the hill, and the Doctor called out "You coming, Ava Jackson?"

"Yeah," Ava shouted back, finally relieved that she could spit out the grass onto the floor where it belonged, "I'm coming!"

Ava didn't feel like running, so she took a leisurely walk down the hill, looking at the sky which was buzzing with life.

She snapped her head back when she felt like something was watching her: a niggling sensation which was tugging at the corner of her eye.

But when she looked, there was nothing there. Nothing that she could see, anyhow.

-x-

"So, the year five billion… The Sun expands, the Earth gets roasted." Ava heard the Doctor explain as she joined the pair on the grass. Both he and Rose were lying on the Doctor's coat, completely comfortable in each other's presence despite what had happened a day prior.

Ava sat down on the green next to her friends, eager to get back into the conversation.

"That was our first date," Rose smiled, as memories from Platform 1 flitted through her mind.

"We had chips!" the Doctor reminded her, and they both giggled.

Ava smiled back uncomfortably. She felt a little awkward when the Doctor and Rose talked about past adventures; then again, Ava sort of expected that both the Time Lord and Rose were going to have some sort of intimate bond which Ava couldn't ever quite squeeze into.

"Don't get me wrong," Ava chipped in, distracting the duo from their little trip down memory lane. "But I thought this _was _Earth."

"Oh no," the Doctor tutted. "The Earth did end, in the end. End in the end? Ha. Anyway, the Earth is gone… All rocks and dust, but the human race lives on."

Ava suddenly laughed. She just loved how even though the planet was gone, humans still existed. Miss Taylor, her Year Nine physics teacher, was so so wrong. There was life after the apocalypse. Alien life did exist.

The Doctor grinned back at her. "The human race spreads out across the sky. Soon as the Earth burns up, oh yeah, they get all nostalgic. Big revival moment… They find this place!"

The Doctor sat up so he got a better view of the city in front of them. "Same size as the Earth, same orbit, same air… Lovely! Call goes out, the humans move in!"

Ava stood up, shielding her eyes with her hand as she looked into the horizon. "That's so… Oh, I can't even describe it! The fact that Earth has made such a big impact on the rest of the universe that they had to make a replica… It makes me feel proud to be human! And I didn't think I'd ever say that."

"I know," the Doctor said, a proud smile on his face. Even though he wasn't human in origin, it made him feel so gratified that such a small planet could achieve so much.

"What's this city called, then?" Rose queried.

"New New York."

"Oh come on," Ava and Rose said in unison, sceptically.

"It is!" the Doctor tried to explain, but still the two girls weren't quite believing it. "It's the city of New New York! Strictly speaking, it's the fifteenth New York since the original. So that makes it New New New New New New New New New New New New New…"

Ava drifted out from the Doctor's most recent ramble, when she swore something was moving from behind her. The same little trivial sensation at the back of her mind… Like when you're in a back alley at night for some reason and you're always convinced some pervert is stalking you from behind. But this, this was different. Ava was _sure _something was creeping about amongst the grass.

"So can we go to New New York? So good they named it twice?"

Ava narrowed her eyes and carefully scanned the ground. She didn't usually miss something, and if she couldn't see anything by now she usually dismissed it. But…

The Doctor gripped her shoulder, dragging Ava out of her trance. "Still with us, Ava?"

Ava blinked. "Sorry, what?"

"We're going over there," the Doctor said, pointing to the west of the city to two tall, white buildings. Two very modern buildings, each depicted with a green crescent moon on the side.

"What are they?" Ava asked, suddenly feeling quite stupid by being the one who asked all the questions.

"Some sort of hospital. The green moon, it's the universal symbol for hospital." the Doctor said, reaching into his coat pocket. "And I got this."

He pulled out a familiar black, leather wallet. The wallet containing the psychic paper.

"We're going to break into a hospital?" Ava squeaked, "Why would we need to break into a hospital? That thing has got us into enough trouble, Doctor."

Rose grinned. "Oh, I love the psychic paper."

"No, we don't need to break in. Not this time." he showed the paper to both Ava and Rose. "I got a message."

"Not only is it an extraordinary piece of accustomed fake ID, you can also basically text on it." Ava offered the Doctor a couple of claps. "Bravo. You've got one suave piece of tech there, Doctor."

The Doctor tried to look modest. "I know. Anyway, someone wants to see me. And you, Ava, as it seems."

Ava scrunched her face in confusion. "What? Let me see that."

The Doctor offered her the paper and Ava took it graciously, bringing the wallet up to her eyes so she could read it.

_Ward 26- Please come, Time Lord and The Lonely Girl._

"The Lonely Girl?" Ava questioned, handing the paper back to the Doctor. "What is that supposed to mean? I'm not lonely. How do you know that's supposed to be me?"

Rose coughed. "Strictly speaking, Ava, you _are _lonely. Not in the friendship aspect, I suppose, but with your family…"

"But how would anyone here know that?" Ava asked. "Just, how? Only you two know about my family. No-one in the year five billion."

"Well," the Doctor butted in, "We're just going to have to find out, aren't we?"

Ava felt completely out of her depth. She preferred to keep her personal life to herself, maybe only even telling her closest friends. She didn't want anyone that she'd never met to know anything about her situation.

The Doctor saw the look of distress on Ava's face and leaned out his arm, motioning for her to hook on. Ava was a little doubtful at first, but she eventually slipped her arm through his. Rose did a similar motion on his other side.

"Hmm!" Rose announced. "And I thought we were just sight-seeing. Let's go buy some grapes!"

The trio began their descent down the hill, Rose and the Doctor talking a little but Ava choosing to remain quiet.

She swore she could hear the tinkering of tiny legs behind them.


	17. Stage One Disinfection

**A/N: This chapter is mainly just a tiny scene which features in New Earth... But I really widened it and freated a lot of Doctor/Ava banter! This is my first attempt at a little bit of humour in this story, so I hope you enjoy!**

**Wow... 112 reviews! That's pretty damn amazing for this little story. I feel it has a way to go! I can't believe how many alerts and favourites this story has too- 61 alerts! Wow! And thanks to my hundredth reviewer Azreael! Without you guys, I don't think this story would get anywhere!**

**Also, I watched Voyage of the Damned yesterday, and just how freaking amazing is that episode? I would go as far as to say that it was my favourite. Astrid Peth and the Doctor... Wow. Just wow. And Bannakaffalatta? AMAZING.**

**Disclaimer: Only own Ava Jackson. Not anything else. Doctor Who belongs to the BBC.**

* * *

The automatic doors at the entrance of the massive hospital eased open, welcoming the Doctor, Ava and Rose into a spacious reception/waiting area. Everywhere they looked was so white and clean and shiny… Completely unlike any hospital found on Earth. Ava hadn't had much experience of hospitals in her lifetime put aside getting her appendix removed when she was four, but she was pretty much sure that nowhere in East London anyway was as suave as this.

"…bit rich coming from you," Ava heard Rose finish off, immersed in an obviously riveting conversation with the Doctor.

"I can't help it! I don't like hospitals… They give me the creeps!" the Doctor exclaimed in his defence, wrinkling his nose at the way-too-clinical stench that was wafting about the air.

"I know what you mean," Ava agreed, fighting back a sneeze which she felt developing. "I feel like I can't do anything without someone complaining about my personal hygiene."

Rose snorted. "Says the girl who has never really been in a hospital before. You'd understand if you actually got ill once in a while."

"I do get ill!" Ava said a little louder than intended. "Just not _that _ill. Your mum forces you down to A & E if you've got a bloody cold."

Ava was pretty sure that she heard Rose reply, but she was too busy studying the nurses which were travelling to and fro across the hospital. Their faces were hidden with a white, fabric cloth and they wore white cloth robes that matched the funny hats which were perched on top of their heads. Ava wondered what faces were hidden under those cloths; were they alien? Or were they just human?

_Just human. _Ha.

When she noticed Ava wasn't going to give her a reply, Rose followed Ava's gaze across the waiting area. "It's very smart. Not exactly NHS."

"No shop!" the Doctor whined, looking suddenly deflated. "I like a little shop!"

"Well, it's not like you're going to go souvenir shopping in a _hospital _is it? Hospitals are the places you kind of wish to forget, not buy mementos." Ava remarked.

The Doctor looked even more depressed. "Well. Thanks for killing that one, Ava."

Ava fluttered her eyelashes and offered the Doctor a sarcastic smile. "No problem."

"I thought that this far in the future, they'd of cured everything." Rose suggested, looking at the Doctor.

"The human race moves on, so do the viruses. It's an on-going war." the Doctor sighed.

The conversation subject totally dropped when a cat, in a nurse's outfit, crossed their path and nodded politely at Rose. Rose stared back at her rudely; without realising.

When the cat passed, Rose's eyes were widened to an unnatural extent. "They're cats!"

Instead of being shocked, Ava just nodded. "O-oh! That's what was underneath those sheets!"

The Doctor glared at the two teenage girls. "Now, don't stare, or talk excessively loudly. Think what you look like to them…"

The Doctor studied both Rose and Ava up and down, assessing their looks and trying to come out with something that would not offend either of them. "All pink and yellow." he said to Rose, who let it slide. "And pink and… Ginger."

"Ginger!" Ava gasped, and then flushed as some of the visitors in the hospital turned to stare at her. She immediately lowered her voice. "I am _not _ginger!"

Rose turned around so Ava couldn't see her giggling.

"Oops," the Doctor pulled an apologetic face as he gestured towards Ava's locks. "Well, I…"

Ava pulled a strand of hair out of her hat and shoved it in the Doctor's face, who looked slightly alarmed at just how angry she was. "This, this is _not _ginger. This is the result of trying and failing to dye my hair red, Doctor, but it is _not _ginger! You hear me? Not ginger! It's brown. Plain brown."

"What's wrong with being ginger?" the Doctor queried. "I'd _love _to be ginger! You know, all the best humans are ginger."

"Name two." Ava asked, but quickly interrupted and pressed a finger to the Doctor's lips when he started to reply. "That I've heard of."

The Doctor's shoulders sagged as about a thousand names were crossed off his mental list. He drummed his fingers against his chin, his brow furrowed with concentration. Ava had never seen think so hard. "Aha! Good queen Bess!"

Ava offered him a blank look.

"Elizabeth the first! The most mighty virgin queen of England! Well. I say virgin…" he quickly cut off the topic when Rose shot him a look. "She was a magnificent ginger!"

"Wasn't she _really _ugly? Yeah, I know, don't judge people by their looks… But weren't her teeth absolutely horrible?" Ava questioned.

The Doctor glanced upwards with a cheeky nostalgic grin on his face. He didn't say anything for moment, then coughed and returned back to Earth. Sorry, New Earth. "Her teeth were a bit off, and, yeah, she didn't bath all that often, but she had an amazing head of ginger hair. Oh, that hair was _incredible._ Well, you had to say it was incredible, otherwise, y'know…" the Doctor pulled a face and drew a line across his throat. "And believe me; I've come to close to that a few times."

Ava raised an eyebrow. "Okay… Fine. I'll give you 'Good Queen Bess'. Only because she was the Queen, though. Girl power and all that. But you still owe me one more cool ginger."

"Oh. Right." the Doctor looked anxious and glanced at Rose for support, who looked away before she broke into giggles again. "Erm…"

Ava folded her arms, clearly not impressed.

The Doctor muttered something which was inaudible to Ava.

"Speak up, time boy!" Ava grinned, "Not all of us have super-sonic hearing!"

"Ron Weasley!" the Doctor blurted.

"Ron-" Ava started, but the Doctor was already pacing across the room.

"That's where I'd put a shop!" the Doctor pointed to an empty area, plain eager to change the subject. "Right there!"

The Doctor pressed a button on the side of the wall and two doors shot open, revealing some sort of elevator shaft. He promptly stepped in and Ava followed, not letting their conversation drop.

"Ron Weasley!" Ava exclaimed. "Seriously, all you could think of was _Ron Weasley? _Mind you, Rupert Grint…"

"Yes. Exactly. Rupert Grint." the Doctor assured Ava. "That lovely Rupert Grint. He's King of the Gingers is Rupert…"

Ava eyed the Time Lord disapprovingly. "You do know who Rupert Grint is, don't you?"

The Doctor blinked and scratched the back of his neck. "Yes. Of course I do. Everybody knows who Rupert Grint is. That… gingery… God. But all I'm saying is Ron Weasley is the best ginger out there."

"Riiight." Ava dragged out her word. For a Time Lord who knew practically everything, he had a pretty low selection of knowledge on one of her favourite subjects: British actors. "We better…"

"Ward 26, thanks!" the Doctor announced, cutting Ava off as the doors clamped closed.

"…for Rose." Ava shook her head and sighed.

"Hold on!" Ava heard a female voice call out just as the metal of the doors clanged together, and a fist being pumped against the door.

The Doctor clicked his tongue and leaned against the door. "Oh, too late… We're going up."

"It's alright! There's another lift!" the muffled yet enthusiastic voice called out back.

The Doctor glanced at Ava. "Ward 26. And watch out for the disinfectant."

Ava nodded, then was whacked with realisation. "Wait… what disinfectant?"

"Watch out for what?" the voice was more muffled.

The Doctor waved a hand dismissively at Ava and continued to reply to Rose, shouting this time. "The disinfectant!"

"What?"

"The di-" the Doctor decided against shouting. "Oh, she'll find out soon enough."

Ava didn't like being out of the loop. "_What disinfectant?"_

The Doctor opened his mouth to speak, but the rude lady on the intercom got there first.

"_Commence stage one disinfection."_

The Doctor closed his eyes and Ava was about to shout at him, when a huge spurt of water from the ceiling absolutely soaked her, making Ava let out a scream.

"DOCTOR!" Ava screeched, not enjoying the ice-cold wash unlike her companion. "I'm going to kill you for this!"

The Doctor was revelling in it, scrubbing a hand through his deliciously chocolate-like hair and remaining completely calm about the whole situation. In the end, Ava felt she had no choice but to take off her hat and let the water rush through her tresses. After all, she had no idea when she'd be able to wash her hair next. She was still going to kill him later thought, however hard that might be due to his two hearts.

Ava gasped as the shower ceased and the lift emitted a puff of chalky powder. The Doctor had an even bigger grin on his face and barely reacted, looking like the smug git he actually was.

As the blow dryer engaged, Ava combed back her hair with her hands.

"See? Not so bad, was it?" the Doctor said, actually admiring how dashing he looked with his coat blowing up in the artificial wind.

Ava smiled sweetly back at him, pulling her top down. "I'm still going to kill you later. Not here, though, because we're in a hospital. That would be too inhumane."

"Oh yes. Because killing in other places would be more acceptable." the Doctor waggled his eyebrows at the teenager.

The doors shot open when the pair were completely dry. The Doctor looked very well groomed and his hair was tidy for once. Although, Ava sort of liked the slightly dishevelled look…

The Doctor led Ava out into the ward which, like the rest of the hospital, was incredibly spacious and filled with people.

The Doctor snaked his arm through Ava's. "Let's go and find our patient, shall we?"

* * *

**A/N: Hope you enjoyed! And on a sadder note... I think my updates will become few and far between. I want to make my chapters much longer so I can fit more in, do homework plus write a few chapters for my new story Being Human... But hey-ho!**


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